Gents travel to Wossman

CROWLEY – The Crowley Gents came out of last week’s Acadia Parish Jamboree with a lot of positives and the expectations are higher than ever now following a 40-6 thrashing of Iota.
Meeting those expectations will be challenging, however, and it all starts tonight when the Gents travel up north to face the Wossman Wildcats at Richwood High School. Kickoff for the clash is set for 7 p.m.
“It’s an exciting time for us,” said CHS coach Josh Fontenot of the season opener. “It’s Week 1 and everyone is usually pretty excited about their team; I know we are excited about ours. It’s time to get out there and play and see what we can do.”
Wossman should provide a good measuring stick for the Gents. The Wildcats return a strong nucleus, especially on offense, from last year’s team that earned the No. 22 seed in the Class 4A playoffs.
“They (Wossman) are good and they are a better team than they were last year,” said Fontenot, whose team scored 21 unanswered points in the second half to defeat the Wildcats 34-20 at Gardiner Memorial Stadium in 2013. “They have a new coach and he’s doing a good job. They look (on film) like they are more organized and they’re playing with a little more pep.”
The biggest plus for the Wildcats is the return of Cameron Lewis at quarterback. Lewis baffled the Gents last year on the ground, rushing for 132 yards and a pair of touchdowns on just 15 carries.
“Their quarterback is big and athletic; everything kind of goes through him,” said Fontenot. “It’s him and No. 8 (Ladarrius Thomas) back there and they are running the show. If he (Thomas) doesn’t get it, then the quarterback is taking it and they are a pretty deadly combination.”
Thomas only had four touches for 16 yards against the Gents in 2013, but he powered his way to 47 yards and a touchdown on one series in the Wildcats’ 26-14 victory over Carroll last week in jamboree action.
Lewis accounted for two touchdowns on the ground in that jamboree victory while he also hit Montrail Etson on a 25-yard touchdown pass.
“Up front, I don’t know if they are as good as they were last year on the offensive line, but I think they are making up for it with those skill guys,” said Fontenot. “And as for the passing game, they have some big, pretty receivers and they are pretty fast.”
For the Gents, the key will be to avoid the big play, which is something they weren’t able to do against the Wildcats last year.
Wossman actually took a 20-13 lead behind a pair of bursts by Lewis. He put the Cats on the board early with a 63-yard touchdown run and then followed that up with a 73-yard run in the second quarter.
“Being able to bottle up the quarterback will be the key for us,” said Fontenot. “It’s going to be for us to not give up the big play. To think that we are going to hold the quarterback to no yards rushing and that he’s not going to complete a big pass, that’s just unrealistic.
“If we can not give up a big play for a score and make them earn it, I think we’ll be fine because, eventually, I think our defensive pressure with us running to the ball like we have will take care of itself.”
Fontenot’s squad gave up one big play during their jamboree last week, a 71-yard touchdown run by Adam Ardoin early in the contest. Other than that, the Gents didn’t give up much, if anything, when the first unit was out on the field.
“We are flying around on defense right now and we’re going to need to continue to do that,” said Fontenot. “These guys are a little more athletic than what we’ve seen thus far and they are a little bigger and stronger.”
The Gents will counter with an offense that was quite productive in jamboree. After a somewhat sluggish start, the Gents racked up 344 total yards of offense with the bulk of that coming through the air.
CHS quarterback Pate Broussard completed seven passes, three for touchdowns, to five different receivers. Tail back Ty’Von Griffin, who also rushed for 39 yards and two touchdowns, had one reception for an 80-yard touchdown. Terrell Thomas caught a screen pass and turned it into a 63-yard touchdown and Keith Wilson hauled in one pass for a 25-yard scoring strike.
Wilson also led the Gents’ ground attack with three carries for 52 yards while Griffin had 12 carries for 39 yards and two touchdowns.
“I wasn’t really pleased with how we started (in the jamboree) but after watching the film, we didn’t do that badly,” said Fontenot. “Iota tackled really well so we weren’t able to break many big runs; so we kind of went to the air and Pate got going. When he (Broussard) can get going like that, it makes it easy for us because he has some pretty good targets out there.
“Overall, after watching the film, I was pretty satisfied. I thought the offensive line did better than I had initially thought and that was good.”
With that said, Fontenot knows that Wossman provides a stiffer challenge than his scrimmage and jamboree opponents.
“Nothing against St. Louis or Iota, but Wossman is a different beast,” said Fontenot. “These guys are big, fast and they are going to come to play. This is a 4A team that knows how to play ball in a tough district. They know what we’re about and they’re going to be prepared.”
On the defensive side for the Wildcats, the thing that sticks out is their athleticism.
“What gets you with their defense is their speed,” said Fontenot. “They have two big defensive tackles and their pretty athletic but their linebackers can go. They are really fast. They kind of plug it up and let those linebackers go run and get it.
“We’re just going to try and counter it and run right at them.”