RSS Feed

After starting the season with four-straight losses, the Abbeville Wildcats have won two games in a row. While the defense has been consistent throughout the season, it’s the offense that’s hit its stride.
Abbeville scraped the bottom of the barrel in its week four loss to Holy Savior Menard, only totaling 76 yards passing with four interceptions and failing to score an offensive touchdown in the 15-6 home-opening loss.
Since that game, the AHS offense has been unstoppable behind the tutelage of offensive coordinator Donald Fusilier and the trio of quarterback Dazavien Maze and wide receivers Cameron Samuels and Jacolby Campbell.
The Wildcats threw for 111 yards in the 34-28 loss to Franklinton on Thursday.
“We’re actually still underachieving at this point, Fusilier said before Thursday’s game. “This offense should average 50 points per game. We haven’t showed everything yet, which is a good thing, but we’re still not satisfied.”
For Maze, whose 507 yards passing and four touchdowns with no interceptions in the two wins, catapulted him to the top of the parish leaderboard, the reason is simple.
After seven games, Maze has thrown for 1,078 yards. It has been close to 20 years since an AHS quarterback has thrown for more than 1,000 yards. Maze is on target to reach the 1,300-yard mark in 10 games.
“I just needed to get my confidence back,” Maze said. “With Coach Trev (Trevor Eaton) coming in, he helped a lot. I played for him two years ago. He told me to go out there and just be myself, and it’s working.”
Samuels has been the most consistent threat all season. But against Holy Savior Menard, he had five catches for only 35 yards. Since that game, he’s caught 15 passes for 262 yards and three touchdowns.
Before Thursday’s game, he led the parish in receptions (33), receiving yards (510), and touchdowns (7).
“I just make plays whenever I get the chance,” Samuels said. “If the ball touches my hands, I have to do something with it. That’s been my mind-set all year.”
Just a sophomore, Campbell is the youngest of the trio. After catching five passes for 41 yards against Holy Savior Menard, he rebounded with 12 catches for 189 yards and a touchdown in the two wins. Those stats have him tied with Samuels for the parish-lead in receptions and he’s second to Samuels in receiving yards with 400.
“My relationship with the team has changed,” Campbell said. “I’ve bonded with the team, and we’ve built trust in the last few weeks. Trust goes a long way. It helps with everything on offense.”
Other offensive weapons are Braylon Himel (8-129-2 TD) and tight end Chayson Gray.
In week seven, they begin District 5-3A play at home against the Kaplan Pirates. All three players answered in unison when asked about the rivalry game.
“We’re bringing the Russo back to Abbeville!” they exclaimed.

BATON ROUGE - For the second consecutive year, the Kaplan Pirates defeated the Class 1A Southern Lab Kittens. The Pirates outscored Southern Lab 13-0 in the second half en route to a 27-18 win on Thursday.
With this victory, Kaplan improves to a record of 5-2, with three games remaining in the season. The Pirates will travel to Abbeville to face the Wildcats, who have a record of 2-5, in the district opener for both teams. That game is scheduled for Thursday.
Kaplan head coach John Thompson has a history with Southern Lab, having faced them in the playoffs while he was an assistant coach for Vermilion Catholic.
“Southern Lab is the kind of team that struggles to come back if you get ahead of them,” Thompson said on Friday morning. “I told the kids at halftime to go jump on them.”
At halftime, the Pirates were trailing 18-14.
Following Thompson’s halftime speech, where he expressed his frustration, the Kaplan defense did not allow any more points and intercepted Southern Lab’s quarterback twice in the second half. Javonte Mouton and Gannon Smith made crucial interceptions that contributed to this shutout.
While the KHS defense held strong, the Pirate offense was effective as well.
“I wanted to control the clock and keep our offense on the field,” Thompson added.
The Pirates rushed for 166 yards and passed for 111 yards throughout the game. Quarterback Sabe David has averaged 100 passing yards in the last five games. He completed 9 out of 13 passes for 111 yards against Southern Lab, with his longest completion being a 37-yard pass to tight end Jacob Devoltz.
Fullback DeMarion Cormier had another standout performance, following a remarkable week where he rushed for 327 yards and five touchdowns.
In this game, Cormier rushed for 145 yards on 35 carries and scored three touchdowns. In the last two games alone, he has carried the ball 76 times for a total of 472 yards and scored eight touchdowns.
Against Southern Lab, he recorded two 1-yard touchdown runs and one 3-yard touchdown run.
In the first quarter, Cassidy Roy scored on a 13-yard touchdown run, and Gannon Smith successfully converted the extra point, putting Kaplan ahead 7-6 at the 2:20 mark of the first period. Southern Lab responded with a 54-yard touchdown pass that allowed them to retake the lead, 12-7, at the start of the second period.
The Pirates quickly regrouped and marched down the field, resulting in Cormier scoring his first touchdown, followed by an extra point from Smith to give KHS a 14-12 lead. However, Southern Lab went into halftime with an 18-14 advantage.
Other Kaplan runners combined for 26 yards on eight carries, with Jayden Hargrave having four carries for nine yards.
Jeremy Roy led the receivers with three receptions for 23 yards, while Cassidy Roy had one catch for 25 yards, and Gannon Smith had two catches for six yards.

Here are photos of the Abbeville High ad VC homecoming parades this past Friday. The Abbeville High parade rolled first and then VC followed.

ERATH - With four games remaining in the regular season, the chatter has already begun in Erath. There is a talk that the Bobcats (6-0) are in great shape to finish the year 10 -0.
Since the Bobcats have been playing high school football, starting in 1953, no team has gone 10-0. There have been a couple nine-win seasons but no perfect season.
The reason there is chatter is because three out of the next four Erath’s opponents have losing records.
The Bobcats travel to Berwick, who is 1-5 this year. Berwick lost to Hanson (26-3), Kaplan (49-0) and Morgan City (40-14).
After Berwick, the Bobcats begin district play against powerhouse St. Martinville, who is sporting a 2-4 record, The remaining district games are Kaplan (4-2) and then Abbeville (2-4).
Erath head coach Eric LeBlanc is trying to keep his players grounded and not listen to the chatter on the street.
The focus is one game at a time, said LeBlanc.
“We are trying to keep their heads in the right place. Trying to keep them motivated,” said LeBlanc. “As a head coach, I want to maintain their level of work. We need to work as hard as we have been. It is not about the opponents. It is more about us.”
This week, leading up to the Berwick game, the Bobcats have a different practice routine because school is off for three days.
“This week is the hardest week because they have to come to practice early,” he added. “We are coming off a homecoming win and now we are going into this game.”
The Bobcats are coming off a 48-0 win over DeQuincy in a homecoming contest.
It was 41-0 at halftime.
The Bobcats scored 14 points in the first quarter and then 28 in the second quarter to seal the victory.
Running back Aiden Bourque had seven carries, two were for touchdowns. He had seven touches for 44 yards.
Jahlil Charles had eight carries for 64 yards.
Jack Landry only threw six passes and completed three for 64 yards and one touchdown.
Tate Collins had a 68 yard punt return for a touchdown in the second quarter.
Kicker Carlos Arelanno went 7-for-7 kicking extra points for EHS.
Coach LeBlanc played almost his entire roster against DeQuincy.