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ST. JAMES FOOTBALL 2009 |
(Week 4) at Patterson |
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Wildcats suffer yet another heartbreaker
By
Kenny Hymel www.stjameswildcats.com September 25,
2009 PATTERSON, LA -- Failing to capitalize on opportunities once
again haunted the St. James Wildcats in a game that St. James nearly put away
in the second quarter. Failing to put
it away was perhaps the biggest blown opportunity of them all. The Patterson Lumberjacks, led by a very impressive
Kenny Hilliard at running back, defended their home turf just enough to hang
on for a 22-20 victory over St. James. St. James couldn't ask for a
better start to the game. A nice
opening kickoff return by Jaleel Steib set up a 35-yard scoring run by Kevin Mayho. Steib kicked the extra point to give St. James an early
7-0 lead. Patterson would fumble the ensuing kickoff back to St.
James, however the Wildcats ran out of downs.
An opportunity to go up by two scores before Hilliard even touched the
ball was lost here. Later in the first quarter, Patterson would enjoy a
short field due to a Wildcat turnover and a short field is not what you want
to give a guy like Hilliard. A few plays later, Kenny Hillard blasted his way into the end zone from 1 yard
out. The extra point was no good, thus
St. James still held a 7-6 lead at the 4:19 mark in the first quarter. Another great kickoff return by Jaleel
Steib set up the next St. James score. Wildcat quarterback Antoine Landry would
find Kenny Armant open down the sideline for a
35-yard scoring pass. The extra point
was no good, thus the score remained at 13-6 with 11:51 left in the first
half. A huge interception and return by John Shepard would set up the next St. James score. Kenny Armant took
a counter play and sailed through defenders in route to an 18-yard scoring
run. The extra point put St. James up
20-6 at the 6:37 mark in the second quarter. St. James actually would get the ball back by forcing
Patterson to a 3-and-out and punt. Then,
the sloppy play showed up for St. James. Instead of going up by 3 scores, the Wildcats fumbled
the ball away and Patterson took advantage of their opportunity. Kenny Hillard, a 6-1,
200-pound power back, scored his second touchdown of night. This time Hilliard scored on a 30-yard
run. Another thing haunting this St. James team this year is
stopping 2-point conversions. After
Hilliard's score, Patterson went for 2 and made it easily. This put the game at 20-14 with 4:19 left
in the first half. Patterson took the opening kickoff of the second half
and it would be Hilliard scoring his third of the night
when he took in a 1-yard run.
Patterson again went for 2 and again converted it. This gave the Lumberjacks a 22-20 lead with
8:05 left in the third quarter. From that point on, the defense of St. James -- at this
point actually having a lot of freshmen and sophomores on the field -- held
their ground and caused havoc and turnovers like a traditional St. James
defense. The Wildcat defense forced turnovers to get St. James
the ball back on the Patterson 15 and 36-yard-line on two respective occasions
in the fourth quarter. The Wildcat
offense could not come up with points on both occasions before the game clock
expired with a 22-20 lead by Patterson. St. James will drop to very unfamiliar territory at 0-4
and will face perhaps the best team on the schedule next Thursday night when
they travel to take on a Class 4A powerhouse, the Salmen
Spartans. NOTABLES This is the second game this year, and third in the last
two years, where the opponent uses 2-point conversions to provide the scoring
edge to beat St. James. Winning district should now be the ultimate goal for St.
James as winning district grants an automatically qualification to the
playoffs. Anyone who has made every
St. James game year knows that cleaning up a mistake or two is all St. James
needs to be a team to make things happen should they qualify for the
playoffs. Coach Gaille reminded his team
of the continuing improvement each week and again encouraged his guys to stick together through this tough time. He also reminded them that by no means is
the season over yet. Maybe the only positive talk around the St. James
program lately has been what the underclassmen have been doing on Varsity and
what the Sub-Varsity teams have been doing in their games. The Wildcats enjoyed another big week from
their Sub-Varsity teams this week.
First, the Junior Varsity picked up an 18-0 win over Patterson on
Tuesday. Then perhaps the hottest Wildcat
team of all, the Seventh-and-Eight graders picked up a 28-0 win on Wednesday
over West St. John. Through all the pains and disappointment of defeat right
now, there is no doubt the sense that a bright future is still brewing at St.
James. |
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