Destrehan beats persistent St. Amant

• By FRED ALDRICH
• Special to The Advocate
• Published: Nov 7, 2009

• Print
• Email
• Save
• Reprints
• Twitter
• Share

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Facebook
• Reddit
• 

ST. AMANT — St. Amant fans filed out of The Pit on Friday night, hoarse from shouting, sad that their Gators had dropped a 34-33 thriller to Destrehan, but unanimous in agreement on one point: it was a great high school football game.

The teams fought to a 17-17 halftime time and St. Amant (5-5, 0-5) broke out to a 33-24 lead with 6:57 remaining, but the rest of the game belonged to the visiting Wildcats.

The smoke hadn’t even cleared from the cannon shot after Taylor Jones 4-yard run gave the Gators a nine-point lead before running back Henry Lenox put Destrehan right back in the game.

Running through the smoke down the left sideline Lenox broke an 80-yard touchdown run to bring Destrehan (5-5, 3-2) back within two points at 33-31.

That score would stand until the 34-second mark when Andrew Wyatt’s field goal attempt was partially blocked but fluttered inside the left upright to seal the win.

“I thought that (Lenox’s) run was a key play,” Destrehan coach Stephen Robicheaux said. “He comes through that smoke down the sideline and goes 80 and it gave us some life.”

Lenox finished as the Wildcats’ leading rusher with 108 yards on 11 carries. Quarterback Taylor Dunn threw for 211 yards on a 14-of-28 effort with two interceptions.

The Gators struck early in the first quarter, taking a 7-0 lead on 33-yard pass from Tyler Guillory to Shift Graves on their second drive.

Then they turned a little too generous, giving the ball away three times on first-half fumbles.

The first turnover didn’t result in any Destrehan points, but then the Gators coughed up the ball on their 22 and 19-yard lines.

The Wildcats turned those gifts into a 27-yard Andrew Wyatt field goal and a 9-yard touchdown pass from Taylor Dunn to Eric Johnson for a brief 9-7 lead.

St. Amant answered with two scores. Daniel St. Pierre ran 9 yards for a touchdown and Justin Manton kicked a 35-yard field goal to put the Gators up 17-9.

Manton was an important weapon in the first half. In addition to the field goal he kicked two extra points, boomed three kickoffs into the end zone and pinned the Wildcats with a punt that was downed on the 6-yard line. He added two PATs in the second half as well as another kickoff into the end zone and two more inside the 5.