RESERVE — The East St. John Wildcats (0-5) are hoping to terminate their losing streak this week when they travel to St. Charles Parish to take on the Destrehan High School Wildcats (5-0).

This will be the third district game for the District 7- 5A schools.

With quarterback Marquise Darensbourg returning last week to play his first game of the season for ESJ, the former Destrehan football star helped his team score four touchdowns of the night, but wasn’t able to secure a win.

“The playbook will expand with Darensbourg back,” East St. John football coach Alden Foster said. “It expanded some last week. He runs the show. He does a great job and he understands the offense. You’ll see the playbook expand more and more, week to week.”

Darensbourg will be facing his former team, Destrehan, this Friday.

“Emotions are going to run high for him,” Foster said. “But at the same time he is a mature young man. So, we’ll talk to him all week about it. We’ll tell him just to control it and let the game play out.”

Foster said we have yet to see what all East St. John is capable of doing.

“We’ve seen flashes of what ESJ is capable of,” Foster said. “We’ve seen it if we don’t turn the ball over and don’t give up big plays. We’ll have a good football team if we stop giving up big plays. We killed ourselves last week with the same type of stain — turning the ball over and giving up big plays.”

Foster said his defense is playing the same as his offense.

“Defense has been giving up big plays, too,” Foster said. “Take a few of the big plays away and we saw flashes of a good football team.”

It’ll take more than just flashes of a good team to defeat the Destrehan Wildcats who are on a five-game winning streak.

“The main challenge for us will be to stop the run and don’t give up the big plays on the pass,” Foster said. “If we want to beat Destrehan, we need to contain their quarterback and the three good receivers they have. We can’t give up the big play.

“Containing Destrehan will take both execution and effort. It takes both. We’ve got to match their intensity. You’ve got to play up on their level to win.”

Destrehan defeated ESJ the last two seasons and Foster said they are trying their best to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

“We expect our same guys to keep making plays — Damonte Coxie, Darensbourg and a couple of others,” Foster said. “But we need the other guys to step up and make plays, too, if we’re going to win.”

Destrehan High School defeated East St. John twice last year 28-14 and 68-14.

By Courtney Griggs