St. James  23     Amite  12

“Forces of Nature”

-- Wind, Rain, Lightning, Tornado Watches, and Power Outages

November 28, 1997 (Class 3A Quarter-Finals)

By Kenny Hymel

It was still in the early stages of the St. James-Amite rivalry, however, the two teams already knew each other well.

The storied rivalry began with the 1994 State Championship where the Wildcats loss to Amite.  In the 1996 quarterfinal playoff game, played on a wet field in Amite, the Wildcats avenged their loss by drilling the Warriors 35-0.  The two teams decided to schedule a week-3 game in St. James the following year in 1997.  This time, Amite got back to “one up” as they defeated St. James 20-12.

This playoff game was a much-anticipated rematch and just like the previous year, this game was to be played on the day after Thanksgiving – a storied day for Wildcat football throughout the years.

No doubt about it, this St. James team was a much different team than the game earlier that season.  Actually, the Wildcats opened up with an uncharacteristic 2-5 start in 1997.  Behind sophomore quarterback Corey Webster, the Wildcats were able to get it back on track and practically became a revived football team by going on a strong winning streak to close the season.

Amite was also playing better football than in the beginning of 1997.  Thus, this was a highly covered game.

Defense seemed the story for the first half of the game in which both teams were unsuccessful in finding the end zone.  However, Amite found points by the way of Adrian Harris’ foot.  Warrior kicker, Adrian Harris, put 6 points on the board with 2 field goals kicked within the last 4 minutes of the first half.

St. James went into halftime trailing by a score of 6-0.  Things seemed dull as the Wildcats never seemed to get anything going in the first half.

Just as the teams were walking back to the locker room, the glow of distant lightning lit up the night sky.  Before halftime was over, fans found themselves in a torrential downpour.  The rain was so hard that the middle of the field, which is built with an obvious crown, was holding about an inch of water.  The wind was also pretty bad.

When PA announcer “Doc” Schexnayder made the announcement that there was a tornado watch in effect for the area, many fans scrambled out of the stadium.  Others, who remained, were facing the tough decision of staying or leaving. 

Those Wildcat fans that stayed were in for a special treat.

The teams finally came out to start the second half and after the referees had a short discussion, they decided to keep on playing the game as the lightning was still in the distance and very sparse.  The downpour of rain didn’t slow down much.

Obvious football fans wrote St. James off at this point.  The Wildcats took the ball to start the second half and the Amite defense forced a quick three-and-out.  To some, this may have seemed like the end for St. James.  A typical comment may have been, “they weren’t playing good in the first half, so they really aren’t going to get anything going in all this rain and wind.”

With just one play, everything changed.

With the ball on their own 20-yard line, Desmond Collins, Amite’s quarterback, dropped back to pass and seen nothing open.  Collins decided to drop back some more – then some more – and even more when three Wildcats were in his face chasing him down.  Collins lost track of his position on the field and finally was tripped up for the sack – back in his own end zone – giving the Wildcats 2 points with the safety.  Wildcat Ricky Burdis was credited with the sack on what may be the biggest safety in Wildcat history.  Suddenly, St. James had a little something to cheer about as the rain continued to pour.

With the safety, Amite’s lead was cut down to 6-2, and they were forced to kick the ball back to St. James.  The kicker made the mistake of kicking it right to Chad Smith.  Smith initially fumbled the wet football but then picked it up and broke tackles down the field all the way to the Warrior 20-yard line.

On the very next play, quarterback Corey Webster rolled out and found a wide-open Ray Weber in the end zone.  Just like that, St. James took the lead.  Chad Jasmin added 2 more points to the lead as he powered his way in on the two-point conversion.  With 7:16 left in the third, St. James was now on top by a score of 10-6. 

Despite giving up 10 points in a matter of three plays, Amite still held together enough to regain the lead.  Amite’s Kendrick Francois’ scored on a 10-yard run late in the third quarter.  Amite failed with the point after, thus, the Wildcats now trailed 10-12.

Unfortunately for Amite, St. James owned the rest of the game.  Corey Webster capped off a stellar drive by scoring on a 1-yard run to regain the lead.  The point after was no good, thus the Wildcats led 16-12.

Chad Jamin put an end to the game when he powered his way in on a 16-yard run.  Jasmin’s run, along with the successful extra point, put the Wildcats ahead 23-10 which is how the game would end.

This story doesn’t end when the game clock hit zero.  While the rain was now a light drizzle, distant lightning was still cracking away.  Just as the teams were shaking hands, the power to the stadium went out completely.  There was total darkness over the entire parish.

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