Rams to host Wildcats Friday night
Published 11:45 pm Tuesday, August 27, 2013
By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur
LAPLACE – West St. John coach Robert Valdez likened hosting this week’s jamboree against East St. John to the chance to show off a new house.
“A lot of people from the east bank never get the chance to come out here because our teams are both playing on Friday night,” said Valdez. “We’re really excited to host the jamboree and have a chance to get the east and west banks together for a game.”
Friday night marks the first time that West St. John will host a jamboree, as the Rams and Wildcats’ JV and varsity teams will each face one another at Rudolph G. Dinvaut Memorial Stadium. Kickoff of the JV game will be at 5:30 with the varsity kicking off after, likely at approximately 7 p.m.
“We’re really looking forward to getting out there,” said Valdez. “We have an opportunity to play one of the top teams in the state, and East St. John is the kind of team you want to test yourself against in this setting. They’ve got tremendous coaches, great athleticism, tremendous depth and size. It’ll be a great measure of where we are to see how we’re able to compete with them.”
The Rams and Wildcats were old jamboree foes before the teams shifted opponents over the past three seasons, with West St. John and Riverside playing one another and East St. John drawing St. Charles Catholic.
The 5A Wildcats pose a different set of problems for the Rams than Riverside, with the latter two schools representing Class 1A and 2A respectively.
Still, Valdez said that the Rams plan to come out on the attack, despite the Wildcats advantage in size and numbers. Whereas in past years, West St. John would scale back its use of no-huddle packages against bigger programs in non-district play, the Rams committed late last season to pushing the tempo, adopting an Oregon Ducks/Texas A&M-style pace and Valdez said that isn’t changing Friday night.
“We’re all in,” said Valdez. “There are no secrets in terms of what we want to do offensively. We want to dictate the pace and run our no-huddle. We’ve got some kids who are playing two ways, but this is the philosophy and identity we’ve established for ourselves. We’re preparing ourselves to play into December, so playing our game against these big programs helps immensely.”
East St. John coach Phillip Banko said that the two schools are collaborating to make the jamboree into a special event. On Tuesday, the teams were set to get together for a pregame dinner. And on Friday, Banko said that he expects a great atmosphere.
“It’s a great environment every Friday night there,” said Banko. “There’s a loyal and very supportive Ram Nation and this is a good challenge for us to go and play in a tough road stadium.”
For the Wildcats, Rams’ quarterback Austin Howard and tailback Jeremy Jackson are the chief concerns.
“We won’t be able to corral them completely. Those guys are two of the best playmakers the state has to offer,” said Banko. “We’re just hoping that we can slow them down.”
That Wildcats defense stands perhaps the best chance of that of anyone the Rams will see this season. East St. John’s defense is lauded and dominated last week’s scrimmage against Bonnabel.
Blocking a defensive line led by starters Charlie Payne, Darren Williams, Lorne McGuffy and Davarion Stockman is the riddle Valdez and his offensive line must solve.
“Their defense is full of athletic kids with tremendous size. It starts up front, where they’ve got those two big defensive tackles and then those tall, athletic ends,” said Valdez. “When you combine that with a pair of lock down man to man corners, it’s a problem. I’m interested to see how we match up.”
The Wildcats played a controlled scrimmage against Bonnabel with sets of 15 plays, redzone and goalline drills. Friday night will be the first true game situation the team has seen against an opposing squad.
“It’s a totally different situation. The coaches will bee on the sidelines with headsets and not on the field, we’ll have the play clock and refs … It’s a chance to see how we react to what happens in game.’
“It’ll be a night of great food, fanfare and excellent football. It should be a good show.”