On Friday, the Southern Lab Kittens traveled south to face the Dunham High School Tigers. The game started off with a bang, as Southern Lab was able to score two minutes into the game, and Dunham was able to answer almost as quickly with a score of their own. Southern Lab is a faster team, and was able to grind down Dunham’s defense, with their own defense making some crucial stops, as Southern Lab was able to comfortably defeat Dunham by a score of 35-23 after a back and forth game which saw Southern Lab lead the entire time but Dunham keep the score close, for the most part.
Southern Lab’s quarterback, Marlon Brown, was the top performer for the Kittens tonight. He connected on just 11 of 20 passes, but those 11 drastically helped the Kitten’s control the game, throwing for 144 yards and 3 touchdowns, and added 96 rushing yards and a score on the ground, from 7 yards out. Dunham’s front 7 gave Brown some trouble, but displayed great pocket awareness and was able to save plays with his legs.
Brown found receiver Denim Hunt for a pair of scores in the contest, including on the opening drive. Hunt’s touchdowns were scored from 28 and 25 yards out. The other touchdown pass was caught by Marquez Williams. Towards the end of the game, Jérome Harris Jr. was able to score on a 2-yard touchdown run to extend the lead. Harris rushed for 55 on the night, while Armariyan Asberry rushed for 45 yards.
Dylan Day made a big impact on defense for the Kittens. He played pretty tight coverage and came up with some great PBUs. His future defensive coordinator, Lance Guidry, from the University of Miami, was in attendance to watch his future defensive back. Another key player on defense for Southern Lab was Chase Square. His name was getting called all night, and although I can’t say for sure exactly how many tackles he recorded last night, I assume it was into the double digits.
Elijah Haven looked pretty solid out there, for a freshman. He was held to just 69 passing yards and 55 rushing, but made solid plays and gave Dunham fans hope for the future. The Tigers’ best unit last night was special teams, as Drew Bourgeois ran an 85-yard kickoff return to the house, and had several other longer returns that set Dunham’s offense up with good field position. The offense just wasn’t able to capitalize often on this.
On defense, the lone takeaway came on a very nice diving interception by Bronson Bonneval.
3-2 Dunham travels to Pride to play Northeast High School next Friday. 3-1 Southern Lab travels up to Baker to play Central Private.
