Breaking Through: Late defensive stands lifts Lutcher to first win of season
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
BATON ROUGE – Lutcher football coach Dwain Jenkins sprinted down the sideline for a timeout.
With his team clinging to a seven-point lead and Liberty breathing down Lutcher’s neck, facing a fourth-and-goal at the 1-yard line, Jenkins wanted to get a look at the Patriots’ formation.
Liberty had taken its last possession 85 yards in 13 plays, taking almost the final seven minutes off the clock, when the Bulldogs successfully foiled the Patriots’ plans for a potential game-tying score.
Because of cramps, Liberty had to substitute leading rusher Zaiden Foster with Abedengo Stephens, and the result was a 2-yard loss led by Lutcher’s Quantez Joseph and a group of five other teammates that were in the vicinity, preserving a 27-20 victory Thursday at Olympia Stadium.
“We were looking for a tip of the formation they would be in,” Jenkins said. “They didn’t have any timeouts left. They had to give us their best look and gave us one chance to make a play.”
Joseph, the team’s H-back, moved back to his original position a year ago on the team’s offensive line because of injuries earlier in the week. He also found himself with duty at linebacker, perfectly diagnosing the last play and helping Lutcher (1-2) celebrate its first win of the season.
“I had to step up,” Joseph said. “We went over different packages at practice this week. We had a lot of players hurt, and guys on the other side of the ball had to step up, and that’s what we did, and we made the play. Our coaches made the call to put us in the best position, and we just had to execute it at the highest level we could.”
Liberty (2-1) put itself in position to remain undefeated, rallying from deficits of 14-0 and 21-6 in the first half. The Patriots possessed the football for 17 minutes of the second half behind Foster and a massive offensive line that rushed the ball 36 times for 171 yards.
Liberty’s final drive included five first downs, and Brice Preston’s 38-yard completion to Jonathan Harris gave the team a first-and-goal at the 8-yard line. After Preston’s spike on first down, he found Blake Broussard for three yards with the clock winding under a minute to play.
Foster had a four-yard pickup to the 1, but limped off the field, setting the stage for the final play that wound up in a negative play for the Patriots, who were trying to match the program’s best start in four years and match last year’s win total.
“I thought Foster got in when they marked him down at the one,” Liberty first-year coach Jimmy Zachery said. “We came back and had a good second half, but it just wasn’t good enough. That first half got us. We were trying to play catch-up the whole night. We waited too late to start playing some ball on defense.”
Lutcher found itself with a sense of urgency, dropping its first two games of the season for the first time since 2019. The Bulldogs hadn’t been 0-3 since 2013, when they lost their first five games that season.
Charles accounted for 186 total yards and a pair of touchdowns, and running back Jaimylon Joseph had a team-high 115 yards and 2 TDs on 12 attempts. Ashton Stark had four receptions for 23 yards.
“The expectations are always high in Lutcher,” Jenkins said. “These kids carry that burden everywhere they go, and to play the way we did the first two weeks, I was proud of the way our team continued to practice. We’ve got a great group of kids, and I believed in them. I knew at some point where we were going to break through, and hopefully this can springboard us into the rest of the season.
“We’re a young football team that’s looking for confidence,” Jenkins said. “We’ve got a lot of young guys that are playing varsity football for the first time, and the (freshman) quarterback’s (Terron Charles) one of them. (Sophomore Wide receiver) Johnny Jones, this is his first year playing football. He had been a basketball guy his whole life.”
Lutcher scored the game’s first 14 points, led 21-6, and added a score right before halftime for a 27-14 lead. The Bulldogs wouldn’t score again, initially believing they were the recipient of a touchdown when Liberty’s punt returner muffed the ball into the end zone.
After initially being ruled a touchdown when Lutcher recovered the ball in the end zone which would have extended the team’s lead to 33-14, a conference amongst the officials later reversed the call to a touchback at the 6:12 mark of the third quarter.
Liberty’s defense, which limited Lutcher to 39 yards in the second half, scored on its first possession of the third quarter to account for the final score. Preston kept from a yard out, a play after Foster motored 44 yards to the goal line.
“We knew how talented Liberty was after watching them on film,” Jenkins said. “Zaiden Foster’s one of the best backs in Baton Rouge; he’s probably one of the best backs in the state. We knew what type of game it would be. We knew we would make some mistakes because we’re so young. We just have to find a way to overcome that, and I think we did that, and to be able to get the win the way we did was really important.”
Foster finished with 40 carries for a career-high 219 yards and a touchdown.
“He’s a workhorse,” Zachery said. “We lean on him a lot. He had a great game and was a leader for our team. He put us on his back.”
Charles took Lutcher 68 yards in nine plays – a drive that was aided by a pass interference penalty – for a touchdown with 43 seconds before halftime for a 27-14 lead.
The Bulldogs picked up three first downs to reach the Patriots’ 11 when on third-and-three, Charles found a leaping Jones near the corner of the end zone for a touchdown.
Lutcher opened with a commanding 14-0 lead in the first six minutes on consecutive possessions after placekicker Dylan Delaneuville recovered his own onside kick that caromed off a Liberty defender.
The Bulldogs’ opening series wound up in a touchdown three minutes into the game with Charles keeping up the middle for a 45-yard touchdown, a play after the Patriots’ defense was drawn offsides on fourth-and-two.
Delaneuville’s recovery at midfield led to a six-play scoring drive where Joseph scored the first of his two first-half touchdowns – a 32-yard run over the left side in which he went untouched for the score.
Lutcher had 120 yards of offense before Liberty touched the ball for the first time. Foster carried six times on the eight-play series, including a 36-yard run around right end, which he took down the sideline into the end zone with 2:04 left in the opening quarter.
Lutcher, which outgained Liberty 190-49 in the first quarter, increased its lead to 21-6 on the first play of the second quarter when Joseph darted 24 yards through the middle of the defense and Delaneuville added his third extra point.
“The first two weeks, it wasn’t really feeling too good,” Charles said. “We shook back and got the dub. We had to win. We had to execute the plan. We started off in the first quarter. We came out ready to play.”
Liberty answered, though, converting a third-and-1 on Preston’s 9-yard keeper, and Lutcher was guilty of pass interference to move the ball to the Bulldogs’ 15. Two plays later, Preston connected with Conner Naim over the middle for a 16-yard score, and Foster added the two-point conversion, drawing the Patriots to within 21-14, with 7:13 showing in the second quarter.
“As a senior, this is our last year,” Lutcher’s Quantez Joseph said. “Our first year, we went to the dome, and we’re trying to leave out the same way we came in. It was a very sour taste in our mouths going 0-2. I think everybody’s going to feel better after this one.”
Lutcher 27, Liberty 20
Score By Quarter
Lutcher 14 13 0 0 – 27
Liberty 6 8 6 0 – 20
Score By Quarters
LHS – Terron Charles 45 run (Dylan Delaneuville kick)
LHS – Jaimylon Joseph 32 run (Delaneuville kick)
LIB – Zaiden Joseph 36 run (kick failed)
LHS – Joseph 24 run (Delaneuville kick)
LIB – Conner Naim 16 pass from Brice Preston (Foster run)
LHS – Johnny Jones 11 pass from Charles (kick failed)
LIB – Brice Preston 1 run (kick failed)
LHS LMHS
First Downs 16 20
Rushes-Yards 26-215 44-215
Passing Yards 88 126
C-A-I 9-17-0 11-16-0
Punts-Avg 1-34 2-27
Fumbles-Lost 3-0 1-0
Penalties-Yards 7-60 6-50
Rushing: Lutcher – Jaimylon Joseph 12-115-2 TDs, Terron Charles 12-98-TD; Liberty – Zaiden Foster 40-219-TD
Passing: Lutcher – Terron Charles – 9-17-0-88-TD, Liberty – Brice Preston 11-16-0-TD
Receiving: Lutcher; Ashton Stark 5-23; Liberty Conner Nairn 5-56-TD, Gregory Cook 2-12.