North Vermilion’s Cooper Derouen (left) is able to hang on and make a tackle in the first quarter.
Ailing North Vermilion Patriots suffer first defeat
YOUNGSVILLE – A season marked by early promise has taken a sobering turn for the North Vermilion Patriots.
Coach Richard Prejean's squad brought a 2-0 record into Thursday's road test at Ascension Episcopal, the first such start in 8 seasons.
But, NVHS was looking for a new direction from freshman Dale Martin after starting quarterback Garrett Becker injured his shoulder the previous week against Franklin.
Breaking in a new quarterback can be a bumpy road. Doing so against a team that found out earlier in the day that it had been awarded the 2016 Class 1A state crown via Southern Lab forfeiture heightened the degree of difficulty.
So it was no shock to see the Blue Gators jump to an early 19-0 lead, then march to a solid 47-7 victory at home.
Martin had some positive moments while sharing snaps with Darius Gilliam, but saw his second pass of the night intercepted for a 32-yard touchdown.
Then later, to add misery to the defeat, junior offensive lineman Zack Hebert suffered a serious knee injury in the final 3 minutes of action and left the field on a stretcher.
“We've been bitten by the injury bug,” Prejean said. “We've had no luck at all. I never like to use injuries as an excuse, but we've been hit hard.
“It's hard to ask a young man (Martin) to step in against a good team like Ascension. They've got a fine team. Their coaches do a great job. I thought Dale did a good job in some areas. He missed a couple of passes I thought we should hit.
“It was a growing experience for him.”
One miss was the Patriots' last gasp to stay relevant. AES had made it 26-7 on Seth Kerstetter's second touchdown catch of the game, a 33-yarder, and on second down from his 30, Martin found Ben Bares deep over the middle. But Bares couldn't bring it in and it remained a 19-point deficit at halftime.
The Gators lost starting quarterback Jake Vascocu to a twisted knee late in the first half, but freshman Cole Simon had a big lead and was able to finish out the impressive victory.
“We didn't have a real good week of practice,” Prejean said. “We weren't in step. We had a short work week coming off a win, and I think some of our players looked like they were looking at headlights.
“We were a little bit overconfident. I think maybe we were thinking we were better than we were.”
One Patriot who comes as advertised is running back Malik Criner, who entered the game with 293 yards and four touchdowns on 34 carries in the first two wins of the season.
Although keyed on by the Gators' defense, Criner responded with 96 yards on 23 carries including NVHS's lone TD of the night from 4 yards out that got the visitors within 19-7 with 10:16 left in the first half.
Criner, who added 45 yards on three kickoff returns, was always fighting for extra yardage.
“With our quarterback situation, we asked Malik to shoulder more of the load on offense,” Prejean said.
That burden may ease as Martin gains experience, or if Becker gets healthy, but for now the Patriots have taken some punches to the gut as they return home next week to host Varnado.
“I haven't had a chance to look at them much yet,” Prejean said, “but I know they'll have great athletes.”
