By RYAN ARENA

GEISMAR — Hahnville left Dutchtown with its second loss of the season Friday night, 13-10 to Class 5A No. 3 Dutchtown, but Tigers coach Lou Valdin was effusive in his praise of his team’s effort.

“I’m extremely proud of my football team,” said Valdin. “They played hard. I thought we were by far the more physical team. Our quarterback goes out there and guts it out on one leg. Tonight came down to two long runs and our inability to put it in the end zone.”

Dutchtown remains in a two-way tie with fellow undefeated East St. John. The teams will break that tie next week.

The two long runs Valdin refers to came at the hands of Effrim Reed, Dutchtown’s electrifying tailback who scored on rushes of 86 and 31 yards.

Reed finished with 23 carries for 237 yards.

“Reed’s just a great player,” said Valdin.

Hahnville (5-2, 2-1) took an early 3-0 lead on Austin Freman’s 24-yard field goal, but Reed’s 86 yarder gave Dutch town (8-0, 3-0) a 7-3 lead at halftime.

“They average 40 points per game, and we felt like we had to jump on them early. In the second half, we thought they’d figure out what we were doing defensively,” said Valdin. “So going into the locker room at 7-3, we thought we were in trouble. But we held them to 13.”

Reed’s second touchdown run put Dutchtown ahead 13-3 in the third quarter. White’s four yard score brought Hahnville within three, but the Griffins’ defense held from there.

Hahnville’s Ahmad White ran 27 times for 103 yards and a score and added four receptions for 70 yards. Ensminger was 12-for-21 for 132 yards and an interception.

“Ensminger played like a champ,” said Valdin. “The offensive line knew he’d be limited and they kept the heat off of him. They understood he couldn’t run or scramble.

“I feel like we beat ourselves. We allowed a long punt return back. We had a number of drive killing penalties. But I’m excited, because we just played the third-ranked team in the state, and we now know that if we play mistake free football, we can play with anybody.”