Undeterred: No. 1 Dunham Gains Share of Third Straight District Title in Adverse Conditions Against Episcopal
by: William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
The harder the rain fell the intensity in the play of The Dunham School ratcheted up.
With heavy volumes of rain pelting the Baton Rouge area Friday afternoon and into the evening, the Tigers appeared at home in adverse conditions that turned their natural-grassed home field into a quagmire.
Against their biggest rival, No. 1 Dunham found joy in the elements. Sophomore quarterback Elijah Haven rushed for three touchdowns and the Tigers’ defense forced three turnovers and shut out Episcopal, 18-0, for a share of their third straight District 8-2A championship.
The Tigers (9-0, 4-0 in 8-2A) can win the district outright at home next Friday against Slaughter Charter.
“It doesn’t matter if we’re playing in freezing cold weather or put us in the Sahara Desert,” Dunham senior defensive lineman Harrison Malik said “We’re coming to play. That’s how our team is. We don’t care about the conditions. Whether if we have people out injured. We’re going to play the best we can. Best is the standard and chase excellence. That’s what we do.”
In a game filled with plenty of pregame built up between two long-standing rivals, Mother Nature made its presence felt throughout. Sections of the field were chewed up, exposing large portions of mud that created a slip-and-slide for skill players.
Traditional offenses gave way to single-minded approaches where quarterback-center exchanges – or shotgun snaps – were of paramount importance.
“As the rain came down throughout the day, they got more and more excited and got a chance to be physical,” Dunham coach Neil Weiner said. “We were able to do some stuff bringing some defensive linemen, bringing in two tight ends and fullbacks, and just pounded it.”
Turnovers were a predictable part of the soggy game with each team forcing a miscue (Jarone Harris fumble recovery for Dunham; Will Ribes interception for Episcopal) in the first quarter, but it was a special teams play from Dunham that led to a 6-0 halftime lead.
A 27-yard punt return from Jaron Harris helped set up the Tigers’ first score at the Knights’ 15 late in the second quarter. Haven kept to the right side on first down and found the end zone with 3:26 left before halftime.
“He’s a playmaker and we put him on punt return for a reason,” Haven said of Harris. “He was able to set us up for that touchdown.”
Weiner didn’t underscore the moment of Harris’ return.
“That was huge for us, it flipped the field and got us the ball down there,” he said. “In a game like this the field position is huge, so for us to get back on the good side of the field was great for us. Jaron’s been great for us. Super undersized at safety, but he’s super physical. I was nervous about him catching the ball, but he did a great job of handling the ball. That was definitely a game changer.”
Episcopal’s biggest weapon in the ongoing battle against Dunham’s aggressive defense and deteriorating conditions on the field was powerful running back Reid Chauvin. He carried on 21 of his team’s 28 plays in the first half for 73 yards, but the Knights didn’t cross midfield until their final series of the half.
On fourth-and-one from Dunham’s 41, Chauvin was stopped short of a first down after a measurement confirmed a turnover on down with 13 seconds to go before halftime.
“We could never get to that second level,” Episcopal coach Travis Bourgeois said. “We executed well early, but we never got to that second level and in these conditions, it was very difficult to throw the ball.”
Chauvin was limited to eight yards on eight carries in the second half and wound up with 85 yards on 29 carries for the game. Quarterback Zach Hu was 1 of 11 for 8 yards and was intercepted in the fourth quarter.
“We knew he could hit the holes hard,” Malik said of Chauvin. “We knew it would take more than one person to take him down. We emphasized to keep pursuing to the football and keep controlling our gaps and be gap sound. He’s a smart football player. He knows to hit the gaps.”
Episcopal (7-2, 4-1) finished with 93 total yards, 13 of which came after halftime against a Dunham defense that committed extra defenders to try and stop the run.
“They’re putting 10, 11 guys in the box and making that commitment to stopping the run,” Bourgeois said. “We just couldn’t execute the pass in these conditions and who can? They’re a good ball club and do what good teams do, and they took advantage of everything. We had one breakdown on the punt return that gave them their first touchdown. Our defense gave us a chance.”
Weiner applauded his defense for its ability to adapt when Episcopal, at times, went away from its traditional Wing-T offense.
“They ran a lot of different schemes,” he said. “They ran a lot of different stuff and for our coaches to make the adjustment, for our kids to handle it, I was really proud of the defense.”
With the heavens opening back up for the start of the third quarter Dunham went almost exclusively to Haven, the nation’s No. 1 rated quarterback in the Class of 2027.
The Tigers brought in the appropriate personnel to pave the way for Haven. He carried on 10 consecutive plays, and added a 12-yard completion, on a third-quarter drive that consumed more than six minutes and wound up in a punt on the first play of the fourth quarter.
Disaster struck for Episcopal, still trailing 6-0 when Dunham linebacker Rives Johnson recovered Chauvin’s fumble at the 1-yard line and Haven scored two plays later to make it 12-0 with 4:13 remaining.
“It definitely felt good going up two possessions,” Malik said. “That kind of loosened up our defense and we didn’t have as much pressure. We’re not letting that get to our heads. We’re going to keep playing as hard as we can, but Elijah’s second touchdown really helped a lot and loosened up the tensions.”
Following a turnover on downs, Dunham extended its lead with 3:19 showing when Haven kept on a 24-yard score.
His traditional gaudy dual-threat numbers gave way to the elements, but his 87 yards rushing and 28 passing were enough under difficult circumstances.
“Coach always talks about grit,” Haven said. “You have to have a lot of grit. The whole team showed that not just me. I was proud of the way we played. It was just a beautiful night.”
Dunham 18, Episcopal 0
Score By Quarters
Episcopal 0 0 0 0 – 0
Dunham 0 6 0 12 – 18
Scoring Summary
DHS – Elijah Haven 15 run (run failed)
DHS – Haven 1 run (run failed)
DHS – Haven 26 run (pass failed)
EHS DHS
First Downs 8 7
Rushes-Yards 41-85 38-86
Passing Yards 8 28
A-C-I 1-11-1 4-7-1
Punts-Avg. 6-20.8 3-42
Fumbles-Lost 3-2 1-0
Penalties-Yards 5-36 4-40