Colonels crush Southeastern, win Southland
November 21, 2018
These Colonels have come a long, long way
November 21, 2018
The Terrebonne High School football team traveled to north Louisiana last fall and had its season end against Ouachita Parish.
This year, the boys from the hills had to come down to Houma.
And the Tigers flipped the script and got a little revenge, punching a ticket into the Round of 8 in the Class 5A State Playoffs.
Terrebonne played arguably its best ball of the season on Friday, walloping Ouachita Parish 35-14 to earn their spot in the Quarterfinals.
Tigers coach Gary Hill said it would have been eager to focus on revenge all week, but he added that the focus was more on playing quality football after struggling in the opening round against Chalmette.
Hill said he’s proud of his team for pushing into the Quarterfinals — something the school hasn’t done since 1995.
“We didn’t have that revenge emotion — not as much as you’d think,” Hill said on Saturday morning after the win. “Our focus this week was the opposite. We wanted to focus on playing our best, being the aggressor, being the more physical football team and doing the things we felt we had to do to get the win. I was proud of the kids. They kept to that game plan and got the job done.”
That they did.
The Tigers stormed out of the gates with an onslaught, scoring the first 27 points of Friday night’s game to take the drama out of the final result.
Terrebonne got the ball first and made a statement, taking the ball down the field on a 19-yard touchdown run by Chaz Ward to go up 7-0 early.
After the Tigers’ early score, the team’s defense did its part, stuffing Ouachita Parish’s attempts at offense every step of the way.
Hill said he was so proud of the way his defense competed against a team that he said had a “big, quarterback slinging it around back there,” and “big, athletic receivers.”
“I couldn’t be happier of the way our defense has competed — really all season,” Hill said. “They get stops for us when we need them and again on Friday night. You know, we’re not the biggest back there. But we have some speed and some quickness and they attack the football. They did an outstanding job for us setting the tone and making some big hits to keep a physical tone to the game.”
With Terrebonne’s defense flying to the football, it was the Tigers’ offense that kept flying into the end zone in a first-half onslaught.
Terrebonne added a touchdown to its lead midway through the second quarter on a short touchdown run from Anthony Ruffin.
After an interception, the Tigers struck like lightning, scoring a touchdown on their first play from scrimmage on a long pass from Jakhi Douglas to Keshawn James to go up 20-0.
Both Douglas and James can play either quarterback or receiver/halfback/athletic for Terrebonne’s spread offense.
On Friday, Douglas was a big weapon with his arm, hitting several big passes down the field, while allowed James, Ruffin and Ward to control the game running the football.
Hill said having that balance of run and pass was key in the win.
“Later in the year, we know how teams will play us,” Hill said. “So to get a little bit in both directions, that’s beneficial to us. We need that to help keep teams honest.
Just before halftime, Ruffin made his mark on the game. He picked off an Ouachita pass and took it deep into Lions territory. With possession, the Tigers made the most of their scoring chance when Douglas hit Ruffin — this time on offense — for a touchdown grab to go up 27-0 at halftime.
“We made some big plays to force some turnovers on defense,” Hill said. “And when we got those plays, we turned them into points to make them hurt even more. That was a key point to the game.”
In the second half, Ouachita Parish competed, but never got close. They scored a touchdown midway through the third quarter to cut the lead to 27-7, but they never got closer.
The Tigers used ground and pound offense the rest of the way to melt the clock and secure the hard-fought win. Ward scored a late touchdown to put the Tigers in front 35-7. The Lions added a long score late in the game to send it to its final margin.
With the win, the Tigers have another chance at revenge — this time against Destrehan.
The Wildcats beat Terrebonne soundly in Week 10 — the only time the Tigers have been beaten this season.
But Hill said he and his team are not paying much attention to the outcome of that game, but rather more on the things they can learn this week to get better for the rematch.
Hill said he likes that school is out this week.
“The focus will be all on football,” he said.
He added the Tigers made a lot of correctable mistakes in the first game, which can be fixed before Friday night.
“We have to handle our emotions better — on the field and on the sidelines with our coaching staff,” Hill said. “We have to catch the football. We had something like 8 drops that first game. We have to limit their big plays and do our best to try and contain (John) Emery. But we’re confident going on. We think we’ve gotten better since then and we have a lot of confidence that we can play better this next time around.”
Follow Casey on Twitter for more.
https://twitter.com/casey_gisclair
