By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

 

PLAQUEMINE — West St. John achieved one of its preseason goals Friday night — or at least phase one of it.

The Rams’ 56-21 victory over St. John-Plaquemine guaranteed WSJ at least a share of the District 9-1A championship.

Now, the Rams can set their sights on an outright district title with a win next week over East Iberville. White Castle and Ascension Catholic are tied in second place with one district loss each.

“I think we executed well,” said West St. John coach Robert Valdez. “I believe we scored on all of our possessions. I thought our intensity was where it needed to be, even coming off of that win over White Castle.”

Jeremy Jackson rushed 10 times for 128 yards and four touchdowns. Austin Howard was razor sharp, completing 12 of 13 passes for 128 yards and a touchdown, while rushing for another. Kylum Favorite rushed 10 times for 45 yards and a score. Dontre Turner scored off of a blocked punt, and Keith Miller caught seven passes for 78 yards.

West St. John (5-3, 4-0) got on the board first on Howard’s 20-yard touchdown pass to Timothy Nelson. Jimmy Conner’s extra point made it 7-0.

The lead grew to 13-0 on the first of Jackson’s many touchdown runs, this one a 13-yarder. Howard rushed for a 2-point conversion to make it 15-0.

St. John (1-7, 1-3) fired back, scoring on Devyn Allen’s 2-yard touchdown run that made it 15-7.

But from there, it was all Rams. Jackson scoring runs of 13 and 12 yards were sandwiched around a Favorite 10-yarder to make it 36-7. Turner’s return of the blocked punt put WSJ ahead 43-7 at halftime. WSJ led 50-7 at one point.

“Jeremy ran very, very aggressively tonight,” said Valdez. “He was very tough. Overall, we played with effort and again, the execution was where we like it to be. It’s a trend we want to continue.”