Trending Upward: Loreauville Overcomes Slow Start to Reach Third Quarterfinal in Six Years
by: William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
A stumble out of the gate to the 2024 season didn’t dictate the path this year’s Loreauville football team would take.
Instead, a strong resolve has enabled the Tigers to assemble a much different narrative than the one being written in the first month of the season.
Four consecutive losses, coupled with the cancellation of another game because of Hurricane Francine, could have threatened to rip apart the team at the seams. The Tigers, though, have rallied in their football-crazed community in Iberia Parish to put together a team that everyone’s proud of and more importantly, still playing football.
No. 15 Loreauville (6-5) makes its first appearance in four years in a state quarterfinal when the Tigers travel to No. 7 Jena (9-3) for a 7 p.m. Division III non-select matchup at 7 p.m. Friday.
“The big thing was to get past that round,” Loreauville seventh-year football coach Terry Martin said of last week’s 28-7 regional win over Erath. “I felt it all week that there was more confidence by some of the guys I think at one point that maybe weren’t that confident … some of the seniors. I hadn’t heard one person say that they had their goal. I think they’re still ready to keep on playing.”
Given the turbulence over the season’s first 1 ½ months, it’s easy to understand Loreauville’s jubilation.
Martin, a 32-year coaching veteran, believed Loreauville had the pieces necessary for a successful season. The Tigers went 8-4 and advanced to the second round of the playoffs for the straight season in ’23 until falling at Bogalusa, 28-7.
The Tigers returned 14 seniors and 15 starters, but some seniors didn’t measure up to Martin’s expectations to uphold the team’s standards and display the necessary accountability on and off the field.
Four starters were benched for the team’s jamboree because of their inability to live up to some of the team’s stated rules and suffered the consequences. In the team’s homecoming game four weeks later, Martin benched six starters who couldn’t take part in such team activities as riding in the homecoming parade and we detached from the team.
“It’s no secret, early in the season we had some issues with some of the more experienced players going and doing their own thing, whether at practice or off the field,” Martin said. “I talked to the whole team before the first week and a lot of them had played, had a lot of experience. Going in we knew with this group; discipline was probably going to be the biggest issue. It wasn’t going to be a talent thing.
“With this (pre-district) schedule I told them I thought this was one of the rougher ones we’ve had in a while,” Martin said. “Even with a couple of 1A schools on it. I knew they were going to field good teams that would go deep in the playoffs and they’re in the playoffs. I’ve never been really negative with them. I’ve been positive, but I’ve also been realistic and told them with the ability we have on this team, we have a shot to be 5-0 going into district. But with the work ethic, the attention to detail, and all of the little drama things we had, we could easily be 0-5 because our opponents were that good on our schedule.”
Warning signs ahead
Martin had to clarify what he had said to one of his players during his preseason address to the team.
The Tigers weren’t 0-5 as Martin warned, they were 0-4 because Hurricane Francine canceled a scheduled game with Ascension Catholic, the No. 4 seed in the Division IV select state quarterfinals.
“I told him I didn’t say we were going to go 0-5, but that there was a chance because of how some of the guys did things,” he said.
Martin said some players received multi-game suspensions during the opening stretch of the season that included losses to Erath (14-7), Vermilion Catholic (47-36), Jeanette (15-14), and Kaplan (40-15.)
The Tigers were without six starters (one due to an injury) in the game with Jeanerette on Sept. 27 – the team’s homecoming game – and were not allowed to take part in such team activities as riding in the parade.
“They like to toilet paper around here,” Martin said. “If there was a toilet paper championship we would win it. I wasn’t trying to kill their fun, but I told them not to cross the line. One thing I specifically said not to do a bunch of them did it.”
There were plenty of tangible things such as effort in practice, attention to detail, penalties, and mental breakdowns in games Martin wanted to rectify.
“Maybe guys are losing their temper,” he said.
VC’s the No. 1 seeded Division IV select team and Jeanerette the No. 4 seed in Division IV non-select remain alive in their respective playoff brackets. The Tigers, who lost 14-7 in Week 1, responded to defeat Erath, the No. 2 seed, but also suffered a 40-18 loss to Kaplan, which was knocked out of the Division III bracket last week.
Loreauville began its current streak of six wins in its last seven games with a 58-0 victory at Delcambre to open District 7-2A play. They followed that with a 57-3 triumph over Houma Christian.
“Finally, after homecoming, it kind of clicked a bit,” Martin said. “The schedule did get a bit easier, and they started doing things a little better and not doing what they wanted to do. It took us a while. It took us about four weeks to start coming around and doing things right and have played better since then.
“Against Kaplan, we did still didn’t have all of our starters back, but they just shoved the ball down our throats,” Martin said. “We couldn’t stop them, and they played really well. We also didn’t have our quarterback back.”
District champion Catholic High-New Iberia, the No. 7 seed in the Division III non-select bracket, flexed its muscle over Loreauville in a game in which the Tigers committed five turnovers.
The Tigers responded with back-to-back league wins over Frankin (34-14) and West St. Mary (40-20) for a 4-1 finish to compensate for their bumpy start.
“We played well a couple of games and then we played Catholic High who was obviously the better team,” Martin said. “We had five turnovers and there was a lack of paying attention to fundamentals that cost us. Playing against a really talented team, you can’t beat anybody with five turnovers.
“We played well against Franklin and West St. Mary,” Martin said. “West St. Mary has some talent, and the coach there does a good job. I thought we played a team game. I could kind of sense things were going a lot better then.”
Tigers with a cause
Martin said it’s customary for his returning teams to adopt a theme or catchphrase in January to follow through the summer and into the season.
This year was aimed at stepping up the ladder to compete with the traditional Class 3A schools that had become part of the LHSAA’s new divisional play that’s been a mixture of Class 3A-2A teams.
Plenty of motivation went into the Tiger’s thought process, having lost to a pair of Class 3A teams in St. James and Bogalusa the previous two seasons in the second round of the playoffs.
“It’s not always realistic to make it to the quarterfinals, but that’s always a goal of every team to be practicing on Thanksgiving,” Martin said. “They wanted to get over the hump and win one of those second-round games. It was pretty satisfying to finally do that. Provided that we keep on playing well, we have a legitimate shot to play one more week.”
Senior quarterback Hayden Benoit passed for three touchdowns and Loreauville won its playoff opener, 48-26, at Class 3A Marksville to earn a return date with Erath, a Class 3A school it opened against two months earlier.
The Tigers built a 21-0 halftime lead in the rematch with Benoit rushing for a pair of touchdowns and passed for another score of 48 yards to Gavin Judice. Running back Maddox Savoy added 155 yards on 27 carries on the ground.
“We didn’t score as many points last week, but we could have,” Martin said. “We were up 21-0 at half against a team we scored seven points against the first time we played them. We just missed on two or three other balls and had another touchdown called back for a hold. We were more efficient last week, played much better defensively.”
Martin realizes his team’s third straight Class 3A test will provide more resistance against Jena which lost to Union Parish in last year’s Division III state semifinals.
The Giants, who defeated Marksville 36-13 in District 2-3A play, were blown out 41-0 by Bunkie for the district title and have rebounded in the playoffs with a combined victory margin of 41 points against Caldwell Parish and Port Allen.
“This is a really good football team,” Martin said. “It gets a little bit tougher every week. These guys have two really good running backs with some size up front. They run inside-outside veer: some power-type plays. They’re a split-back veer. They don’t do a lot of things formation-wise to worry about but they’re very good at what they do.”
Peaking at the right time
Loreauville’s multi-faced offense averages 31.3 points and nearly 300 yards a game.
The Tigers had the bulk of their starters back on that side of the ball Benoit, a senior, leading the way. The three-year starter has completed 62.3% (81 of 130) of his passes for 1,462 yards with six interceptions and 19 touchdowns – including four in the postseason.
“He’s handled adversity much better than he had before,” Martin said. “ He’s gotten a little bit better every week, taking care of the ball and doing things the right way.”
Benoit has a talented wide receiver corps to choose from led by seniors Kylon Polk (41-613, 4 TDs) and Eli Theodile (18-374, 7 TDs), and junior Blake Delcambre (15-376, 4 TDs)
Polk’s also the team’s leading tackler (67 stops, 4 interceptions, 14 pass breakups, 11 tackles for loss). He also has two touchdowns in the return game, averaging 26.4 yards on kickoffs and 37.5 on punts.
“He’s steady,” Martin said. “He’s a real physical running back who tries to initiate contact with whoever’s in front of him. He’s a guy that I know that we can count on. He’s still quiet but one of the better leaders we’ve had throughout this whole thing. Kylon does everything. He’s made plays all year and the last two weeks he’s had good games defensively.”
Multi-year senior starters Owen Broussard (left tackle), Carlos Martin Jr. (center), and Dylan Singleton (left guard) have been pillars of an offensive line that’s also relied on senior Vaschon Blount (right tackle) and freshman Christopher Jones Jr. (right guard) with senior Gavin Judice at tight end.
Martin said the move of Blount to linebacker for the start of district play provided a boost to the defense which allows 19.6 points and has forced 21 turnovers.
“He’s made a world of difference on both sides of the ball,” Martin said of Blount who has 68 tackles, 15 TFLs, and six sacks.
The 275-pound Singleton is the team’s lone power conference recruit, having committed to Texas Tech to play defensive line. He’s second to Polk in tackles with 55 to go along with 25 tackles for loss, 21 QB pressures, and five sacks.
Singleton is joined up front by Jones (38 tackles, 9 TFLs) and junior Nyjil Nora (29 tackles, 6 TFLs) with production also coming from sophomore Eli Landry (46 tackles, 7 TFLs), sophomore Cole Delahoussaye (24 tackles, 5 TFLs), Judice (34 tackles, 4 PBUs. 3 TFLs), junior Blaise Romero (26 tackles, 6 PBUs, 2 interceptions) and junior Blake Delcambre Jr. (31 tackles, 7 PBUs).
“Being where we are at this point in the season it’s a little more important and the kids realize the chance they have right now,” Martin said. “They’ve been a little more focused and ready to go than usual; it’s been good so far. If we play the way we have the last couple of the weeks, I think we’ve got a shot.”