Dutchtown downs rival EA

• By MATT REYNOLDS
• Special to The Advocate
• Published: Nov 7, 2009

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GONZALES — The Baton Rouge grudge match between Parkview Baptist and Redemptorist high schools on Thursday night may take the honor for the most venomous rivalry game of the week.

The District 6-5A Ascension Parish showdown between Dutchtown and East Ascension made its case for chippiest rivalry on Friday night at Spartan Stadium.

While it wasn’t the most attractive effort of the season, the Griffins (7-3, 3-2) ended the Spartans’ season with a 14-3 victory in front of a standing-room-only crowd.

Dutchtown improves its postseason stock with the victory. The Griffins were ranked sixth in the 5A power rankings going into Friday’s contest with their cross-parish foes.

“EA has a good football team,” Dutchtown coach Benny Saia said. “We expected a battle coming in and that’s exactly what we got.”

With about 4‰ minutes to go in the contest and Dutchtown with the ball, a seemingly ordinary rushing play turned into a sideline-clearing brawl. A tackle carried over out of bounds onto the East Ascension sideline sparked a tussle that halted play for nearly 20 minutes. No players were ejected, however.

“That was so unfortunate,” Saia said. “All of these guys know each other and after the game they were shaking hands and hugging after the game.”

With the victory, the Griffins completed a sweep over their fellow Ascension Parish schools and have beaten the Spartans for four straight seasons.

“It’s a pride thing winning the parish,” Saia said. “These kids know each other well, they like each other and they love playing against each other. But yeah, it’s nice to be able to go to the Jambalaya Festival and have that to brag about.”

There was little firepower throughout the contest that netted a total of 345 total yards of offense.

Dutchtown’s Wing-T and Wildcat formations produced much of the offensive output. The combination of Griffins juniors Johnathan Darville and Effrem Reed proved to be the ground gears that Dutchtown needed to keep East Ascension fighting from behind.

Darville had 42 yards on just two carries, while the explosive Reed carried the ball 20 times for 67 yards and a score.

Junior quarterback Leon Blouin tacked on the other Griffins score — a 3-yard keeper in the second half.