The Acadiana High School Rams convincingly defeat the St. Thomas More Cougars 20-7, but that score is far from telling the entire story. This wasn’t just a victory for the Rams, this was a showcase of defensive dominance.
Acadiana’s defense was the story of this game. They pitched a shutout, allowing 0 offensive points the entire game. The only STM points came from the big play magnet himself, Brian Broussard. This time it was him opportunistically scooping up a ball off the ground and running it back for points himself, the 6th turnover he’s had this season.
That play was great for the Cougars and the Week 1 Gridiron Football Player of the Week Brian Broussard, but it went all downhill from here. The STM offense got nothing going the entire game. The Rams defensive front had a great game stopping the run, and the passing offense for STM could never get into a rhythm.
On the flipside, STM’s defense held up fairly well throughout the game, but Acadiana’s rushing attack proved to be too physical over the course of the game. As great as Brian Broussard is for the Cougars, his impact is somewhat neutralized when the opponent only throws the ball 8 times.
The run game didn’t feel particularly efficient throughout the game, but they were deceptively efficient because they were perfect at preventing negative plays and at converting in short yardage situations. Every play for Acadiana felt like “3 yards and a cloud of dust”, but in reality they averaged over 5.5 yards per carry, totaling 334 yards rushing. Acadiana achieved this mostly through a deadly duo of ball carriers. Tayden Collins carried the ball 21 times for 94 yards, and Jonah Gauthier tallied 22 carries, 182 yards, and a touchdown.
The flagship drive for the Rams came with about 10 minutes left in the 4th quarter. They were only up by 6, and a fantastic punt from STM left Acadiana on their own 1 yard line. This was STM’s chance – the possibility of a 3 and out and great field position, or even a safety, was imminent.
Instead, Acadiana drove the ball down the field and left no doubt. They didn’t put the ball in the air once and generated chunk play after chunk play against a tired Cougar defensive front on their way to a backbreaking 6 minute, 99 yard touchdown drive that put the game out of reach.
The final thing to note with this game was how drastically it was warped by a couple of penalties against STM that came at the absolute worst time for the Cougars. In the 2nd quarter with STM still up 7-3, a handoff to Carter Melancon was broken off for a 25 yard touchdown to extend the lead. Unfortunately for the Cougars, it was called back for holding, not just erasing the touchdown, but also killing the momentum of the drive and eventually stopping the scoring threat entirely.
Just a few minutes later, the Cougars get the Rams off the field with a punt, which was blocked. This was huge for STM as they would be getting a short field, giving the Cougars one of the best chances to score all game. However, this was all for naught. In a gut-wrenching turn of events for STM, there was a roughing the punter penalty of the play, which was absolutely game changing. Cougar ball deep in Ram territory turned into 1st and 10 and new life for the Acadiana offense. They made the Cougars pay by scoring on the drive themselves, taking the lead 10-7 in the 2nd quarter and never looking back.
Acadiana looks to build off of this win as they return home to face New Iberia next week. For St. Thomas More, they will try to bounce back after back-to-back losses as they go on the road to take on Neville next week. For more coverage about both these schools as well as all High School football around, make sure to stick around on https://gridironfootballusa.com/
