By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

EDGARD — Last week’s 15-8 Class 1A quarterfinal victory over Haynesville ranks as one of the most dramatic wins of the Robert Valdez era – or really, any era at all – at West St. John.

The Rams recovered from near disaster – a fumble recovery for a score by Haynesville with just over four minutes left had tied a game that WSJ led 8-0 throughout — to rise up again on Kylum Favorite’s 30-yard touchdown run with 1:05 left to play, a game-winner and one of the prep season’s most significant plays.

Now the Rams prepare to travel to Vermilion Catholic to compete for the right to go to the Superdome, the Eagles an undefeated foe that approaches the game much different from Haynesville, St. john or any of WSJ’s other recent opponents.

Those teams try to pound you into submission via the run. Vermilion, conversely, wants to play basketball on grass via its high octane spread offense.

“They’re going to spread you out,” said Valdez. “Like an Oregon, almost. They will throw it all over. Their running back has already run for over 2,000 yards. He’s one of the fastest we’ll see, like a Tyree Bracken. And their quarterback is very, very accurate.”

The aforementioned running back is Jacoby Davis, who comes off of a monstrous 249 yard, six touchdown effort against Westminster in a 41-28 quarterfinal victory. David complimented him with 210 passing yards.

Those kind of offense numbers are not the exception, not for a team that regularly scores over 50 and even 60 points. Vermilion has topped the 50 point barrier eight times, including three efforts of 60-plus. The Eagles average 50.2 points per game.

It’s been a sudden turnaround under first year coach Trev Faulk, the former LSU and NFL standout linebacker. Vermilion fell in the first round of the playoffs last season as the No. 24 seed before losing 56-0 to Ouachita Christian. While considered the favorite in their district, Vermilion took it much farther than that, and now are a step away from the Superdome.

But if anyone boasts the defense to slow the second-seeded Eagles, it figures to be West St. John, a battle-tested team that has allowed just 23 points over their last four games. WSJ has won eight straight, it’s offense and defense equally adept at creating explosive plays.

Whereas the game with Haynesville was a struggle of defense and field position, Valdez expects that his offense must operate at maximum efficiency this time around.

“We’re going to have to be at our best,” said Valdez. “When you look at what they do, the no huddle constantly, we’re going to have to capitalize on our chances when we have the ball. Defensively, it’s about getting them into third and long. We’ve faced some different teams stylistically, but at the end of the day, the team that wins on the lines is going to dictate what happens.”

The hope, Valdez said, is for the Rams to be able to pressure with primarily their defensive line. That would allow them to play more coverage and limit what Vermilion Catholic can hope to do through the air.

“They’re a team that threatens to score on any play. The more guys we can afford to drop back, the more we can blanket the field, the better we can control that,” he said.

West St. John held an 8-0 lead throughout most of the night at Haynesville last week, points generated on Jarius Moll’s 61-yard first quarter touchdown reception from quarterback Austin Howard. Favorite pounded in the 2-point conversion to make it 8-0.

That held into the fourth quarter. But with 4:04 left in the game, Haynesville’s Mikhell Cooper recovered a Rams’ fumble in the endzone for a score. Levert James officially tied the game with 4:54 left on the clock on a 2-point conversion run.

West St. John already had embarked on a long trip up to its foe’s stadium — Haynesville is just north of the Arkansas border — and knew the trip back would seem that much longer if they weren’t able to pull out the win. It wouldn’t take long for Favorite to find paydirt and seal win number 11 for the Rams.

“That was big time,” said Valdez. “That was as good of a high school football game as you’ll get in Louisiana. Nobody wanted to lose that game, and that was a tough team to beat. When (Favorite) scored, I just had to sit back and say to myself, ‘Wow, this is huge.’”

Valdez praised his defense for holding the Haynesville Wing-T scoreless on the night.

“They’ve been doing what they do for so long, so efficiently … to hold them in check was just spectacular,” Valdez said. “The defense stepped up in just a huge way.”