Crowley cruises past Opelousas

OPELOUSAS – The Crowley Gents’ offense didn’t have its best night of the season Friday .
But thanks to its defense, it really didn’t have to.
The defense, sparked by sophomore Bryston Domino’s 94-yard interception return for a touchdown, came up with five turnovers, three of them thwarting drives and four of them which the offense was able to capitalize on, in a 41-6 drumming of the Tigers in District 4-4A action at Donald Gardiner Stadium.
“Our defense played very well tonight,” said CHS coach Josh Fontenot following the victory that sent his team to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in league play.
“Opelousas is very athletic and our guys went out there and made some plays. We were able to hold them (Opelousas) in check and I was proud of them for that.”
The Gents forced two fumbles deep in their own territory and added another takeaway with a Terrell Thomas interception at their own 29 yard line in the first half alone to set the tone for the game. Edward Yokum recovered the first fumble of the game - at the Gents’ own 17-yard line - and Cord Garrett had the other.
Domino added an interception late in the second quarter to set up the Gents’ final score of the first half and the sophomore added  another turnover early in the fourth quarter with the play of the game, his 94-yard interception return.
“You know, we had a couple of stops inside the 20 which were really crucial. And then you have a pick-six and that was big,” said Fontenot.
The Gents were efficient on offense despite posting just 323 yards, their lowest output of the season. However, they played on a short field for the most of the night.
“All in all, I thought we did pretty well,” said Fontenot. “I thought we threw the ball pretty well in the first half and we did some good things.”
The Gents racked up 200 total yards of offense in the first half behind quarterback Pate Broussard, who completed eight of his 12 pass attempts for 127 yards.
Chris Lewis carried the bulk of the load on the ground prior to the intermission with eight carries for 52 yards and two touchdowns. Lewis, who missed last week’s game with an injury, finished the night with 113 yards on 13 carries.
Lewis also led the Gents in receiving with three catches for 69 yards, all on bubble screens.
“It was good to have Chris back,” said Fontenot. “He was feeling his way through some things a little bit, but he really ran well out there, especially in the open field.”
Curtis Broxton, playing in place of injured running back Ty’Von Griffin, also had a good night. He picked up 87 yards and a touchdown on 12 carries.
Griffin went down with an ankle injury Thursday afternoon and was sidelined for the contest.
“I can’t speak enough about Curtis,”said Fontenot. “At the beginning of the year, he told me that he didn’t want to ever come off the field and he’s not really. He’s playing well and playing a lot. He’s running hard and blocking and playing safety and directing traffic back there as well.
“Griff will probably be back next week. He (Griffin) probably could have played tonight, but we wanted to give him a breather and let him heal up.”
Jerry Dregin also had a big night at receiver. He hauled in four passes for 53 yards, including two touchdowns.
“Jerry is so big and strong that you don’t mind getting him the ball pretty much anywhere,” said Fontenot of Dregin, who was on the receiving end of two shuttle passes that went for big plays. “He has become a guy that we’re trying to find ways to get him the ball. It’s so good to have because we still have Thomas (Cavell) as another tight end type guy.... so we really have two tight ends.”
Dregin also got in on some defensive action and logged a key sack in the second half as well as a few other tackles.
“Being thin, you kind of have a lot of guys that dance in and out and go both ways,” said Fontenot. “And you have a guy who catches two touchdown passes and then comes in and gets a sack, that’s a pretty good combination.”
The Gents had a number of things go right on the night, but not all was positive, one being penalties.
The Gents held the Tigers to just 96 total yards on the night (minus 40 rushing and 96 passing) but they were flagged 10 times for 112 yards, most of which were on pass interference calls.
“That is another reason that I’m proud of our team tonight, because we were able to play through that,” said Fontenot of the penalties. “Whether you agree with the calls or not, you can sit there and pout about them or you can play through them and we played through those calls, legitimate or not.”
Dregin got the Gents on the board first with a 4-yard touchdown reception in the opening quarter. He added another touchdown early in the second quarter on a 5-yard shuttle pass.
Lewis put the Gents up 20-0 midway through the second quarter on a 4-yard touchdown run and he capped the first-half scoring with a7-yard touchdown run.
Domino added to the lead in the third quarter with his interception return for a touchdown to put the Gents up 34-0.
The Tigers finally got on the board with a 64-yard touchdown pass from James Clark to Dequan Bellard with just under six minutes to go in the third quarter.
The Gents capped thing when Broxton added a six-yard touchdown run late in the fourth quarter.
Andrew Simon converted on five of six extra point attempts. His first PAT was blocked.
“This was a good victory for us,” said Fontenot. “We’re 4-1 after a 2-8 season last year. We’re where we need to be right now. We’re not where I want to end up, though, both performance wise and record wise. But we’re in an okay place.
“Now the real games start; the meat of it starts.”
Crowley will play host to Washington Marion on Friday before traveling to LaGrange the following week on Thursday.