West St. John won’t take old rivals lightly

Published 11:45 pm Tuesday, October 28, 2014

By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

EDGARD – On paper, West St. John has one more huge hurdle to leap en route to claiming a fourth-straight District 8-1A championship: White Castle in the season’s final week, the Bulldogs 3-0 in district and 7-1 overall.

But before that game happens, the Rams can’t look past another old nemesis: St. John-Plaquemine, which will host West St. John this Friday night.

St. John-Plaquemine has struggled this season, with a 1-7 record overall, 1-2 in 8-1A competition.

The Warriors, however, have played much better of late. St. John fell by eight at White Castle two weeks ago, 44-36, and defeated East Iberville last week, 54-6. All of St. John’s predistrict games came against higher classification teams.

“Their record is very deceiving,” West St. John coach Robert Valdez said. “They dealt with the injury bug earlier this season. On film, it’s easy to see this is a team that plays with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. They still believe in themselves, and the fact of the matter is we’re going to get their best game.”

The Rams (6-2, 3-0) cleared a major challenge last week in the form of Ascension Catholic, rallying from a touchdown deficit in the fourth quarter to win that game 32-27.

While the Bulldogs have now only lost twice this season, they share one thing in common with St. John.

“They’re very methodical in what they do offensively,” Valdez said. “You’re going to see double wings, some Wing-T, and then some straight-up power formations. This is what we’re going to see for the next couple of weeks.”

West St. John is ranked fifth in Class 1A power points and appear very likely to draw a first round bye, as the Rams did a year ago.

The Rams have no desire to let the district crown slip away, and Valdez cautioned if his team looks beyond its opponent this Friday night, that could very well be a danger.

“I think we were a little stunned, honestly, in how hard Ascension Catholic played off the bat,” Valdez said. “We can’t afford for that to happen again. We can’t look ahead.”

St. John lost quarterback Hayden Hemenway to a season-ending injury in late September but seemed to adjust around new quarterback Clay Payne, a junior.

“Their quarterback does a very good job spreading the ball around,” Valdez said. “(Gavin) Primeaux, he’s a real nifty running back, a shifty-type kid. They try to catch you out of position.”

On one of the key fourth quarter drives in West St. John’s comeback effort Friday night, Jemoine Green continually dialed up 6’4” Morell Bartholomew, who caught four passes on the drive, including a go-ahead touchdown.

It was Bartholomew’s 12th touchdown of the season. Matched up primarily against top Ascension cornerback Kaleb Winchester on the drive, Bartholomew presented an impossible matchup for the 5’3” junior.

“It’s a major, major advantage for us, with a big kid like Morell on the outside,” Valdez said. “He has 12 touchdown on a little more than 30 catches this season.  In our situation, we know we can go to him, and we can go to him even more, but we want an offense with a high-passing efficiency. We know when we’re running the ball well, teams are going to crowd the box. When that happens, we really like our chances with him against anyone one-on-one.”