Practice Makes Difference: West Feliciana ends two-game losing streak in style over St. Michael
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
BATON ROUGE – West Feliciana quarterback Brooks Hebert said the Saints went to great lengths during practice to sharpen their passing game.
Not only did practice sessions feature each unit’s first teams battling each other, but there were consequences for wide receivers dropping passes, and Hebert misfiring on any attempts.
“We stressed no dropped balls,” Hebert said. “When we did routes on air and we dropped a ball on the ground, it’s five push-ups for every receiver, and if it’s a bad ball, that’s five push-ups for me. It really pushes the tempo and makes us a lot better.”
Hebert may have incurred the most push-ups in the lead up to Thursday’s District 6-4A game at St. Michael the Archangel, but the sophomore was nearly pinpoint perfect in leading West Feliciana to a 35-18 victory at Warrior Stadium.
Hebert completed 18 of 22 passes for 153 yards and touchdowns in both the first and fourth quarters that enabled West Feliciana (3-3, 3-1 in 6-4A) to snap a two-game losing streak. He was even better in the second half, connecting on 10 of 11 passes for 102 yards and a score.
“Hats off to St. Michael’s, they’ve been a program that’s been on the up and up,” West Feliciana first-year coach Terry Minor said. “From the top on down, I think St. Michael’s is doing a great job of taking athletics seriously. You can see it in this environment (first year, on-campus stadium. It’s a Thursday, and those guys are packed out. We’re very appreciative of what they showed our fan base.”
West Feliciana selected Minor to succeed Devin Ducote in June, thus creating a narrow window to assemble a coaching staff and implement new offensive and defensive schemes.
The Saints opened with a 54-7 setback at Alexandria, the No. 2 team in Class 5A, and went on a two-game losing streak against Woodlawn (34-7) and Plaquemine (39-7), the No. 4 team in Class 4A.
“Coach Minor’s pushed it to not let that bother us,” Hebert said. “Week by week, just get better and better. After those games, we came in on Monday, and he told us to forget about it, and we did and had great practices.”
West Feliciana’s spread attack produced 344 yards on 65 plays – nearly double the amount of St. Michael’s 39. Ean Hills gave the Saints a productive ground game with 25 carries for 159 yards and two touchdowns.
“It all comes down to practice,” said West Feliciana senior right tackle Nolan Daniel, who caught his first pass of the season on a batted ball in the air. “We had a good week and had a mentality that we were going to have a good game. We had that connection with the O-line. We all know each other and we’re all best friends.”
St. Michael (5-1, 4-1), which was attempting to win its first six games of the season since 2014, led 7-0 on CJ Levingston’s second effort sweep play that enabled him to score from 29 yards out near the end of the opening quarter.
That turned out to be the Warriors’ first-half highlight against a defense that allowed 57 yards.
“They have nothing to be ashamed of,” St. Michael coach Zach Leger said. “They’re 5-1 and have the rest of the season in front of them. We have to clean things up, look at what we did wrong, and move to next week.”
West Feliciana put together possessions that needed eight and 11 plays, respectively, with each winding up in rushing touchdowns. Hebert’s 14-yard TD pass to Tonio Sullivan (5 catches, 42 yards) tied the game at 7-all, and Ty London made it 14-7 with a 3-yard score out of a wildcat formation with 3:58 left before halftime.
After St. Michael closed to 14-10 on Ben Jones’ 36-yard field goal at the 9:50 mark of the third quarter, the Saints extended their lead to 21-10 with two minutes left in the third quarter on Hills’ 1-yard run.
The Warriors got to within three points (21-18) with 6:46 remaining in the game, taking advantage of quarterback Boogie Levingston’s scrambling ability. A heavy rush flushed him out of the pocket until he alertly spotted a wide-open Johnny McCarty, who covered 51 yards for a touchdown.
Levingston then threw back across the field to an open Jackson Samson for the two-point conversion. He completed 11 of 17 passes for 189 yards and added 34 yards on nine attempts. CJ Levingston had five catches for 53 yards.
“One of our mottos is, ‘It’s Time’,” Minor said. “It’s a mentality; we have to go and choose our winning thoughts and, in our town, that’s something that’s been a deficiency. As a community, we want to be able to think, ‘well, even in hard moments, what are you going to do when a busted play goes for a touchdown, even if you had done everything perfectly right? ’
“Do you choose to allow that moment to carry over to the next moment, or do you say it’s time to make the next best decision?” Minor said. “I’m extremely proud of the progress our guys are making, but it’s not done yet. We want to play our best ball in November and December and have a chance to compete at the highest level.”
West Feliciana countered with a pair of touchdowns in a 23-second span to put the game away.
The Saints covered 58 yards in seven plays with Hebert, rolling to his right, connecting with De’Corine King (4-38) in stride on a 12-yard TD with 3:58 to play. They also recovered their second kickoff in the game, which led to Hills scoring on the first play from seven yards, and Trey Rogers added his fifth extra point.
“It was a big improvement from last week,” Hebert said. “At practice this week, we went good on good. It really prepared us and upped our competition between us, and I felt like that was a big factor.”
West Feliciana 35, St. Michael 18
Score By Quarters
West Feliciana 0 14 7 14 – 35
St. Michael 7 0 3 8 – 18
Scoring Summary
SMHS – CJ Levingston 29 run (Ben Jones kick)
WFHS – Tonio Sullivan 14 pass from Brooks Hebert (Trey Rogers kick)
WFHS – Ty London 3 run (Rogers kick)
SMHS – Jones 36 FG
WFHS – Ean Hills 1 run (Rogers kick)
SMHS – Johnny McCarty 51 pass from Boogie Levingston (Boogie Levingston pass to Jackson Samson)
WFHS – Da’Corine King 12 pass from Hebert (Rogers kick)
WFHS – Hills 7 run (Rogers kick)
WFHS SMHS
First Downs 20 11
Rushes-Yards 43-191 22-92
Passing Yards 153 189
C-A-I 18-22-0 11-17-0
Punts-Avg. 2-25.5 5-31.4
Fumbles-Lost 2-1 3-2
Penalties-Yards 4-25 5-55
RUSHING: WFHS – Ean Hils 25-159, 2 TDs, Ty London 12-30, TD; SMSH – CJ Levingston 2-36, TD, Boogie Levingston 9-34, Dorian Camel 6-22.
PASSING: WFHS – Brooks Hebert 18-22-0-153, 2 TDs ; SMSH – Boogie Levingston 11-17-0-189, TD
RECEVING: WFHS – Tonio Sullivan 5-43, TD, De’Corine King 4-38, TD, Riggs Lanoha 2-11; SMSH – CJ Levingston 5-56, Johnny McCarty 4-77, TD.
Featured Image Courtesy West Feliciana Football on Facebook