Wildcats set for round 2

The Abbeville High Wildcats’ playoff road gets a lot tougher this week with a second-round game on the road against the defending Non-Select Division II state champion Lutcher Bulldogs.
Lutcher’s state championship was its ninth, with three of those coming early (1975, ’78 and ’83) followed by six titles since 2003. Among the players the football program has produced are NFL receiver Jarvis Landry and NFL defensive backs Dexter McCoil and Lionel Washington.
Lutcher (7-2 on the year) is the No. 4 seed in the Division II playoffs. Abbeville, which beat Pearl River 34-20 to open the playoffs, is 9-2.
“They’re still the defending state champions,” AHS head coach Roderick Moy said. “So if we want to be the best, we’ve got to go out and beat the best. They’re a well-coached football team with coach (Dwain) Jenkins out there.
“They’re always going to be dangerous offensively. I actually think they’re better defensively now than they were last year. A lot of things they did last year centered around their quarterback, who graduated.”
Abbeville is confident heading into the game, having won five straight. The Wildcats’ two losses are to 7-2 St. Mary’s of Natchitoches, the No. 6 seed in Select Division IV, and 10-0 St. Charles, the No. 1 seed in Select Division III. Moy scheduled those games on the road specifically to give his team an idea of what it takes to play a good football team after a long drive to get to the game.
“Our kids are in a good mindframe,” Moy said. “You know, we haven’t lost since the St. Charles ballgame (on Oct. 6), so our kids, and our seniors especially, have a sense of ‘we don’t want to go home. We don’t want this thing to end.’ So we’re going to go out there and put our best foot forward and do whatever it takes to keep our season going.”
That attitude is a strong factor this time of year.
“I couldn’t be more pleased with the leadership of our seniors,” Moy said. “They’re really honing in on the young guys and some of their teammates that are older guys but it’s not going to be their last game either way — getting them to see how do you want people to play if it was your last game? They’re really getting those guys into the mode where we want them to be as far as making practice important, making sure we’re locked in on our preparation, and making sure that whoever beats us for the last time, beats us because they’re better and not because we gave anything away.”
The Wildcats looked strong in their opening-round game against No. 20 seed Pearl River.
“I was very pleased with our preparation, the way we came out and started the ballgame off the right way,” Moy said. “We took a sense of urgency into the ballgame that you have to have this time of year. I was very pleased with the way we played on both sides of the ball in the first half.”
The run game was in full gear for the Wildcats on a chilly, wet night that saw a steady rain throughout the game. Justin Montgomery ran for a team-best 157 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries to improve his team-leading totals to 860 yards and eight touchdowns on 124 rushes. Ta’Zavian Andrews added another 110 yards on 11 carries, bumping his totals to 361 yards on 72 rushes. Edmar Simon III had 50 yards and two touchdowns on only seven carries, moving his season totals to 725 yards and 11 TDs on 82 runs. Fullback Zaylun Williams ran for 29 yards on six carries and scored two 2-point conversions, and now has 268 yards and six TDs on 39 rushes.
After Pearl River returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown following a lateral to star running back Tashon Badon, the Wildcats dominated the first half to lead 28-0 at halftime. But the second half saw Badon score on runs of eight and 60 yards to pull the Rebels to within 28-20 before an interception by Simon close to the goal snuffed out a drive on the first play of the fourth quarter. Simon scored a final Abbeville TD to push the margin of victory to 14 points.
“It was typical of a playoff game, those guys (the visiting Rebels) didn’t want to go home,” Moy said. “I’m sure they got a pretty good speech at halftime and they came out fired up, but at the end of the day we did what it took not to let our season end.”
Moy said the offensive line played really well. AHS ran for 418 yards and only attempted three passes.
“They had a lot to do with that 400 yards rushing,” Moy said. “Those five seniors up front really took control of the ballgame and allowed us to control it as a team. And the same thing on the other side of the ball. Our defensive line played really well. They kept our safeties and linebackers really clean and really helped us slow them down in the first half. As you could see, when they did get going in the second half, those backs are very dangerous.”
Badon finished with 184 yards on the ground and scored all three Pearl River touchdowns. But the Wildcats limited Ziderius Brown, Pearl River’s other 1,000-yard rusher, finished the night with only 27 yards on six carries.
“That was probably our most complete game as far as playing well on both sides of the ball,” Moy said. “We really controlled the clock, and when they did get going, they didn’t have very much time left.”
The Wildcats lost starting quarterback Da’Zavien Maze to an ankle injury, with Tahj Judge stepping into the role again after focusing most of his time on playing defense this season after two years at quarterback.
“(Judge) is going to get some extra work” Moy said. “We’re going to do some things with that high ankle sprain and tape up Da’Zavien real tight and see if he can go. It’s going to be a little more of a game-time decision. But if it is Tahj that has to do a little more work on the offensive end, we’re going to have him prepared for that and make sure he’s able to put his best foot forward.
“I think Tahj gives us an element in the passing game that makes us a little more dangerous in a game like this. We’re definitely going to have to score more points to win.”