West Bank Legend Lives On: Shaw’s Historic Victory in the Superdome
by: Mike Strom // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
NEW ORLEANS – The West Bank Legend lives on.
Thirty-seven years after Shaw won its first state title in football in the Caesars Superdome under Coach Hank Tierney, the Eagles returned to the scene of their greatest triumph and repeated the feat in stirring fashion by rallying from behind three times to record a hard-fought 28-25 victory against E.D. White in the Division II Select championship game played Friday in the 44th annual Allstate Sugar Bowl LHSAA Prep Classic.
Top-seeded Shaw (12-2) culminated its third season in year three of Tierney’s return to the West Bank’s only all-boys Catholic school by winning its final 11 games which was good enough to capture the Eagles’ first state title since 1987.
Shaw was making its fifth Prep Classic appearance under Tierney, whose first stint at the Marrero school lasted 19 years before he was released and then welcomed back with open arms three years ago. Shaw’s last Prep Classic appearance was 16 years ago during a run of three consecutive Class 4A state runner-up finishes in 2008, 2007, and 2006 achieved while Tierney was coaching at West Jefferson and later Ponchatoula.
“We’re so excited to win the game for Shaw and the West Bank community,’’ said Tierney, whose admirers dubbed him “The West Bank Legend’’ many years ago for his exploits with the Eagles. “It was a great high school football game, well-played and hard-fought. We’re just happy to come out victorious.
“Shaw is a school on a tremendous upsurge. The enrollment is skyrocketing and I’m sure this is only going to help. You saw the West Bank fans turn out for the game. In three short years, the program has turned completely around … mainly because of these (players).
“I’m just so happy to get to where we got and win a state championship, which is so hard to do. I know that. This is the sixth (championship game) I’ve played in and lost four of them. So I know how hard it is to do that. So I’m just so thrilled for our school, our community, and these young men.’’
Saturday’s victory lap by the Eagles was not all bubble gum and balloons. Shaw three times overcame deficits of 7-0, 14-7, and then 17-14 respectively before scoring two fourth-quarter touchdowns to overtake the scrappy Cardinals from Thibodaux.
Running back Jasper Parker raced 62 yards for the go-ahead score and a 21-17 advantage with 8 minutes, 59 seconds remaining, and quarterback Mason Wilson and wide receiver Jacob Washington followed with their second pitch-and-catch touchdown 1:30 later to build what proved to be an insurmountable 28-17 lead.
Wilson and Washington seized on a critical E.D. White fumble recovered by Shaw outside linebacker Tahj Turner that put the Eagles in business at the Cardinals’ 13-yard line 90 seconds after Parker’s go-ahead score. Washington made a sliding catch of Wilson’s throw from 10 yards away in the right side of the end zone and Henry Cardenas kicked his fourth successful PAT kick to account for Shaw’s final and decisive points.
A Michigan signee like Parker, Washington earlier caught an equally consequential 35-yard touchdown strike from Wilson with 7 seconds remaining till halftime to forge a 14-14 tie at intermission while finishing with 8 receptions good for 105 yards to earn Most Valuable Player honors.
“My hat’s off to Jacob Washington,’’ Tierney said. “He was the well-deserved MVP. He had a great game. Teams have been double-covering Jacob all year. E.D. White went the opposite direction. They loaded the box up.
“(E.D. White) tried to take (Parker and Wilson) away. In the first half (E.D. White) single covered Jacob. He hadn’t gotten coverage like that in a long, long time. But he’s capable of playing like he played (today) in every game. That’s why he’s going to Michigan and he’s going to be a great player at Michigan. The way he played is the way he’s going to play in college and maybe even after college.’’
Washington’s 35-yard touchdown catch right before intermission included some unexpected theatrics when the wide-open receiver juggled the catch several times at the 2-yard line before finally grabbing hold of the ball as it fell between his knees and walking into the end zone.
“Those balls when you’re wide open and the ball is in the air for a long time, those are the hardest ones (to catch), to be honest with you,’’ Washington said. “I knew I had to come down with it and make a play there. I knew I had been put in a position to help us be successful.’’
It took four full quarters for Shaw to seal the deal and wasn’t completed until the Eagles’ offense ran out the final 3:53 after E.D. White had driven 80 yards in 11 plays to get within the final margin of three points. The resilient Cardinals culminated their march when running back Jonathon Lee scored via a 4-yard run and wingback Benjamin Guidry catapulted into the end zone on a counter reverse for a subsequent two-point conversion run.
Third-seeded E.D. White (11-3) had a six-game winning streak broken after finishing the regular season as District 8-4A runner-up to Lutcher, which earned the No. 2 seed in Division II Non-Select. A two-time state champion in 1968 and 1969, the Cardinals were making their first state finals appearance since 2021.
“It was super exciting for us,’’ E.D. White coach Kyle Lasseigne said of his team’s Prep Classic appearance. “(This was) a group of 25 seniors who have done a lot things the right way for a long, long time. They’ve done everything I’ve asked of them and they deserve this moment. The scoreboard says we lost, but I think we won a lot this year.
“This group of seniors has the most wins in the history of our school. This senior group got to play for a state championship when they were freshmen and now as seniors, they got to play for another one. Unfortunately, it didn’t go our way either time. But you’ve got to be proud of those kids. Every single thing I’ve ever asked of them, they came through for me. … One day we’re going to watch the film and I think we’re going to be proud of a lot of things that happened out there on the Superdome turf.’’
As will Shaw, which won its third consecutive District 9-4A championship under Tierney since his return from Ponchatoula where he culminated 11 seasons at the Tangipahoa Parish school by directing the Greenies to the 2021 Class 5A state finals.
Parker, Shaw’s other Michigan signee, rushed 19 times for a game-high 174 yards with the 62-yard scoring run that produced the Eagles’ first points of the second half.
Wilson complimented Parker’s effort by accounting for 199 yards and three touchdowns with his running and passing out of Shaw’s Spread option while directing scoring drives of 80, 67, 80, and 13 yards. Shaw’s senior quarterback rushed 16 times for 88 net yards with a 21-yard, second-quarter scamper around right end for the Eagles to tie the score at 7-7 in addition to completing 10 of 19 pass attempts for 111 yards and the two scores to Washington.
The Eagles rushed for 254 yards and averaged 6.5 yards a carry to account for the lions’ share of their 365 yards and 20 first downs.
The Cardinals, conversely, used five different runners to account for most of their 228 rushing yards with a 4.4-yard average per carry while slick quarterback Grant Barbera completed 12 of 17 passes for 133 yards in addition to rushing 16 times for 40 net yards and directing scoring drives of 89, 80, 709 and 80 yards.
Barbera scored E.D. White’s first touchdown on a 1-yard sneak that Ty Powell followed with the first of two successful PAT kicks to end the game’s opening possession. Powell also kicked a 27-yard field goal for the first points of the second half to give the Cardinals a short-lived 17-14 lead.
Fullback Carter Douglas scored E.D. White’s second touchdown via a 2-yard run while rushing 14 times for 41 yards. Guidry carried four times for a team-leading 52 yards while reserve fullback Landon Babin rushed twice for 44 yards and Lee netted 38 yards on 6 attempts.
“I’d like to give credit to E.D. White for an outstanding game and an outstanding effort,’’ Tierney said. “Their guys didn’t fold their tents at all. When we scored to go up by 11 (28-17 in the fourth quarter), they came right back at us and scored. And that’s the mark of a good team. We knew we were going to be in a dogfight. It looked really bad for us for a quarter and a half.’’
Shaw scored two second-quarter touchdowns to forge a 14-14 tie at intermission while overcoming a semi-disastrous first period in which the Eagles fumbled twice on their opening possession before turning the ball over on downs at E.D. White’s 38-yard line.
In between those possessions, the Cardinals recorded a snappy drive covering 89 yards in 8 plays to take a 7-0 lead on Barbera’s 1-yard quarterback sneak and Powell’s PAT kick. Lee and Babin ripped off runs of 18 and 38 yards to get the drive moving as the Cardinals also benefited from a horse collar penalty against Shaw’s defense on Babin’s long run to produce first-and-goal at the 7. Barbera scored two downs later.
Shaw answered on its third possession covering 80 yards in 9 plays that culminated with Wilson’s 21-yard scoring run on an option play around the right side and Cardenas’ PAT kick. Wilson and Parker accounted for 66 yards of the drive with their rushing, but the key play came one play before the touchdown when Wilson hit wide receiver Washington for a 13-yard completion to convert third-and-8.
E.D. White answered immediately with an 80-yard march in 7 plays that featured a 38-yard run by Guidry that was accompanied by a 15-yard personal foul penalty against Shaw’s defense. Douglas scored four plays later on a 1-yard dive and Powell added the kick for a 14-7 lead with four minutes, 4 seconds remaining till halftime.
Shaw retaliated with an uber-quick 6-play, 67-yard drive in the final 49 seconds to tie the score. Wilson and Washington connected on a 35-yard scoring pass with 7 seconds remaining and Cardenas hit the PAT for the 14-14 tie.
Washington was wide open on the scoring play in an obvious bust by EDW’s defense but juggled the catch at the 2-yard line before finally securing the ball between his knees and walking into the end zone.
“The big play right before the half, which I might add was called by the three of them, Mason, Jasper, and Jacob,’’ Tierney said. “They came out and said, ‘Coach, if we come out and pump fake, (Jacob Washington) is going to be wide open. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred I never listen to a player. But these guys have been with me so long, I believed them.
“I thought that was the biggest play of the game. In the second half, we got our running game going which has been our bread and butter all year. We were able to run the clock and keep (E.D. White’s) very good offense off of the field.’’
The all-E.D. White first quarter produced different a reaction from Tierney.
“I thought we were in deep trouble,’’ Tierney said. “We could not stop their option, which we had not seen that offense in the three years I’ve been (back) at Shaw. I ran that exact (Double Slot option) offense … So I know how hard it is to stop it when it’s run well. (E.D. White runs) it as good as I’ve seen a high school team run it. What went through my mind was we were in deep trouble and we weren’t running the ball. So we were plenty worried.’’
E.D. White, for its part, exited with heads held high, knowing Shaw had been extended for a full 48 minutes.
“I was proud of (the players’) effort,’’ Lasseigne said. “Our execution was off a little bit. When you play a really good football team like Shaw, with some really talented guys on offense, you can’t give them the ball right there (referencing the Cardinals’ lost fumble that set up Shaw’s 13-yard touchdown drive for the winning points. You have to make them drive. You can’t give up big plays.’’
But, Lasseigne added with pride, his voice beginning to tremble with emotion, “There’s a lot of things we do right and I’ll tell you one of them. Somebody sent me a picture last night of a bunch of seniors in adoration (chapel) for an hour. In our preseason talk and our preseason gathering with our players, people asked me what our goal was this year.
“I said this, ‘Our goal is to get closer to heaven. If we got to play for a state championship along the way, then all the better. These guys are closer to Heaven for being part of our program.’’
Shaw, too, is in a much better place thanks to the return of Tierney, a 73-year-old septuagenarian who completed his 39th season as a head coach with a career won-loss record of 331-128-0, good for sixth place on the Louisiana High School Athletic Association’s all-time wins list.
“I thought we could be a good, good program again,’’ Tierney said. “But I didn’t think this (winning a state championship in three seasons). … I really think the reason we won the game and won the state championship is because of the high character of these kids.
“Every day at Shaw this behavior is demanded. (The players) are held accountable to do things right from the day they walk in until the day they leave the practice field. It showed in how they played all year. And that’s due to the discipline and the values they are taught at Shaw.
“Coming back to Shaw three years ago I saw that right away and I knew it was going to be really easy to get these kids to buy in because the school does such a great job of making them the best people they can be both spiritually and in every possible way.
“So I give as much credit to the Shaw Salesian system of education in the development of these kids as I do to the physical skills that they have.’’
And, so, The Legend continues.
SHAW 28, E.D. WHITE 25
E.D. White 7 7 0 11 — 25
Shaw 0 14 0 14 — 28
EDW SHA
First downs 18 20
Rushing 204 254
Passing 133 111
Total offense 337 365
Passes 12-17-0 10-19-0
Punts 3-45.7 4-40.8
Fumbles/lost 1-1 3-0
Penalties 5-50 5-47
SCORING:
EDW: Grant Barbera 1 run (Ty Powell kick).
SHA: Mason Wilson 21 run (Henry Cardenas kick).
EDW: Carter Douglas 1 run (Ty Powell kick).
SHA: Jacob Washington 35 pass from Mason Wilson (Henry Cardenas kick).
EDW: Ty Powell 27 field goal.
SHA: Jasper Parker 62 run (Henry Cardenas kick).
SHA: Jacob Washington 10 pass from Mason Wilson (Henry Cardenas kick).
EDW: Jonathon Lee 4 run (Benjamin Guidry run).