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St. James 27 Evangel
28
“Glorious
Loss”
December 13, 1996 (State Championship)
By Kenny Hymel“The last one to leave, turn out the lights,” read a
sign placed along side highway 3127 just as you got on from highway 20. It was there during the afternoon of
Friday, December 13, 1996. That night,
Vacherie resembled a “ghost town” according to a rare resident who stayed in
town that night. St. James was playing
in the Louisiana Superdome that night and set to take on nationally ranked
Evangel Christian in the Louisiana 3A State Championship – then known as the
“Gatorade Superdome Classic.” Nearly
70-80% of Vacherie residents made the trip to New Orleans to watch the
Wildcats. Before a crowd of 16,539, the St. James Wildcats and
Evangel Eagles put on a spectacular football game – easily, one of the best
state championship games ever held in the Superdome. St. James didn’t waste any
time bringing their fans to their feet.
On the very first drive of the game, Elix
Keller broke numerous tackles on a 51-yard blast down to the 3-yard
line. On the very
next play, Martin Harry ran it in for the 3-yard score. Andrew Dennis connected the extra point and
St. James led 7-0 only 1:57 into the game. On offense, Evangel used a wide-open passing attack with
the quarterback lining up in a unique deep-shotgun formation 8-10 yards
behind the line of scrimmage. Evangel
also didn’t waste any time entertaining their
fans. It took the Eagles only 2 big
pass plays to set up a 16-yard touchdown pass from Phillip Deas to Abram Booty.
With Brad Cobb’s extra point, the game was tied
at 7-7. St. James quickly responded. Wildcat quarterback Kerry Levet capped off another impressive drive by running in
up the middle for an 8-yard score off an option play. Andrew Dennis’ extra point attempt sailed
wide left, thus St. James led 13-7. Evangel would put together yet another long drive,
this time, coming down to a fourth-and-two from the St. James 7-yard
line. Evangel would try a quick pass
to the flat to pick up the first down but Wildcat cornerback Tevis Smith delivered one of the loudest smashing hits I
ever seen and heard as he stopped the Evangel receiver short of the first
down. The fact that the Evangel
receiver even held on to the ball was remarkable. The pace of the game would start to slow down at this point, however, Evangel would score again with 8:16 left
in the first half as Terrance Brooks scored on a 4-yard run. Cobb connected the extra point giving the
Eagles a 14-13 lead over the Wildcats – a lead that the Eagles took into
halftime. The first half was quite an entertaining one for
spectators as both teams totaled 24 first downs and an impressive amount of
yardage setting Superdome Classic records one after the other. Evangel received to open up the second half and they
would make the best of it – scoring on a 39-yard pass from Deas to Robert Davis.
Cobb drilled another extra point and Evangel led 21-13. St. James finally got a drive going again and would
reach the end zone late in the third quarter on a 15-yard run by Elix Keller. Down
by 2 points, St. James obviously elected to go for the 2-point
conversion. Quarterback Kerry Levet would roll out to his right and sprint to the pylon
crossing the goal line for the successful 2-point conversion to tie the game
at 21-21. The game tying conversation
drew the loudest crowd reaction in St. James history. Evangel would yet again strike; this time Deas hit Abram Booty on a bombing 59-yard pass. Cobb’s point after was good and Evangel led
28-21. No matter what one team did to get ahead of the other,
the other team simply came right back at them. With the fourth quarter upon St. James and trailing by
7 points, St. James needed to get the ball back badly. The Wildcats got just that when Jeremy Harry
blocked a 37-yard field goal attempt from Evangel’s Brad Cobb. On a drive with two big pass plays from
Kerry Levet to Jance
Napoleon, St. James found the end zone when Lydell Dabney ran in on a 4-yard score with just 3:50 left in
the game. Coach Gaille
was now left with the toughest decision of his
coaching career – kick the point to tie or go for 2 and the valuable late
lead. St. James has built the philosophy of playing to win
instead of playing not to lose, thus, Gaille showed
his guts and went for the win.
Memories of the classic 1984 Orange Bowl may have danced through the
minds of many as the Wildcat offense went back on the field. The glory for St. James was not to be on
this night. As soon as Elix Keller took the hand off from Kerry Levet, Keller was quickly met by a
flock of Eagles in the backfield.
With 3:50 left in the game, St. James trailed 27-28. The Wildcats knew they still had time but by the time
they got the ball back, there was only a minute left on the clock and the
Wildcats were deep in their own territory – still enough time to drive for a
score but it had be executed with near perfection. St. James ran out of downs with 10 seconds
left in the game. Evangel defeated St. James 28-27 – only one point. Of the over 16,000 fans in the dome that night, not
very many left before this game was over.
St. James loss the game but had nothing to be ashamed of. It was perhaps
the most glorifying loss in Wildcat history.
For the longest, this game stood as the measuring stick for State
Championships held in the Superdome.
Some say, it was the one game that really “broke-in” the State
Championships in the Superdome. The 1996 St. James Wildcats didn’t
win a State Championship but it will be hard to argue that this 1996 team was
not the best team in St. James history.
Both teams finished ranked in the top 100 high school teams in the nation that year. |
