Crowley's offense shines in scrimmage
CROWLEY – All indications entering the 2015 prep football season have pointed toward the Crowley High Gents having one of the most prolific offenses in the state and Thursday, the St. Louis Saints found out that it isn’t just a bunch of preseason hype.
The Gents scored five times with their first-team offense, doing it both through the air as well as on the ground, in dominating their preseason scrimmage against the Saints at the CHS practice field.
“Our guys did a good job tonight,” said CHS coach Josh Fontenot afterward. “You know, it starts with Pate (Broussard) and we’re trying to do a couple of new things, mainly because of him because he can handle all of it. And the other guys around him understand what we’re trying to do, so the new things looked okay tonight.
“It was nice to see some big plays and it was nice to see us move the ball pretty consistently.”
Broussard, the Gents 3-year starter at quarterback, completed 11 of 20 pass attempts for 239 yards and three touchdowns on the evening.
On the Gents’ first offensive series with the first unit, Broussard completed back-to-back passes to Jacq’Co Price and Mikal Hebert for 18 yards. Then, following an incompletion and a short run by Keith Wilson, Broussard hooked up with Price again, this time for a 38-yard scoring strike.
Hebert played a big role in the Gents’ second scoring drive when he made a diving catch on the sideline that went for 40 yards. He also had another reception and finished the night with two catches for 49 yards.
“Since Mikal has been here, he’s been the little man and he’s been the guy who has to work to earn it,” said Fontenot of Hebert. “We have other guys who are getting a lot of recognition and nobody really knows about him (Hebert). But there’s nobody on this team that can keep up with him in the weight room and running sprints; he’s earned everything and he is in on just about every set that we’re in. And you see why because he does some really good things.”
The Gents’ leading receiver was tight end John Marceaux, who pulled in two passes for 71 yards, including a 66-yarder for a touchdown.
Price added two catches for 47 yards; Xavier Johnson had two receptions for 37 yards and Terrell Thomas had two catches for 35 yards.
“We had a number of guys step up and make some big plays,” said Fontenot of his receivers. “John made some great catches and so did Xavier.
The Gents’ ground game wasn’t too shabby either, posting 140 yards between three backs.
Ty’Von Griffin, one of the state’s top returning backs, had just six touches during the contest, but every one of them was big. All six of his runs resulted in first downs with one resulting in a touchdown. His longest run of the night went for 55 yards; another went for 44.
“That was kind of the idea going in,” said Fontenot of not giving Griffin many touches. “With Keith (Wilson) coming in and being able to run, and us using the passing game to get some short yardage stuff and produce, we can use Griff just when we need him.
“We don’t have to run him 30 times a game like we did last year.”
Wilson also had a few nice runs as did Jardell Delco, who also plays linebacker.
“I thought we could do a little bit better job of running the football more consistently, but that’s a tough defense to run against,” said Fontenot of St. Louis’ 3-3 stack. “But we busted a few big runs so that was good to see.”
Defensively, the Gents basically bent but did not break. The unit gave up just one touchdown prior to the live quarter and was bailed out on the final series of the night when Marceaux recovered a fumble inside the red zone.
“We made them earn everything they got and they (St. Louis) only scored once,” said Fontenot. “Now, we tackled atrociously and that’s an early-season thing. But we work on that a lot. The tackling did get better as the scrimmage went on, though.
“Overall, I think we are ahead of where we were last year on defense, but for us to do what we think we can do, we’ve got to get better.”
Other highlights from the scrimmage saw the second unit score on a 70-yard touchdown pass from Paul Dugar to Paul Goodley and an interception off a tipped pass by Chris Lewis.
The Gents will kick off the 2015 season on Thursday when they take on Rayne in the second game of the Acadia Parish Jamboree at Gardiner Memorial Stadium. The first game pits Iota against Church Point at 6:30 p.m.