Jennings outlasts Iota in shootout

IOTA – After last week, you would have thought Iota would have settled with keeping pace with a high octane offense like Jennings.
Though Jennings (3-3, 1-0 in district 4-3A) did eventually outpace Iota (1-5, 0-1) in Friday night’s contest 69-46, it was obvious early that Iota had upset on its mind.
Iota would hop out to an early start and capitalize on Jennings’ mistakes, and, were it not for a stop on its third possession, coach Josh Andrus believes the game could have been very different.
“On the offensive side of the ball, you can’t miss opportunities,” he said. “You’ve got to make every opportunity that you can get. We missed a couple.
“I thought the third series was the big one where we should have scored on that. I think if we score, that’s huge.
Unlike in weeks past, Iota’s effort was there, for four quarters. Coupled with Jennings’ two first-half turnovers and 60 yards in penalties, Iota not only hung with Jennings for most of the first half, but led 13-0 early in the first quarter and 20-13 early in the second.
“The effort was a lot better,” said Andrus. “We changed up a couple things in practice, and they responded to it really well.
However, Jennings began regaining its composure midway through the first quarter, and, thanks in part to running back Travis Etienne, Jennings began creeping back up on the scoreboard as well. But, it wasn’t just Etienne as Jacob Soileau provided crucial yards in relief, and quarterback Kendrick LeJeune answered his early interception with a touchdown in the first half. It seemed that just as fast as Iota had the lead, it lost it. In fact, after LeJeune’s touchdown pass gave Jennings another 1-point lead, it would rattle off two more touchdowns before Iota would answer. That answer would put Iota back within striking distance at 34-26 in favor of Jennings. Iota had a one possession game with less than a minute remaining the half. With Jennings getting the ball back to start the third quarter, it became crucial to pull off a defensive stop on Jennings. Instead, however, Iota would allow LeJeune to hit Taylor Joseph in stride who would score from 32 yards out as time expired in the half. It was, deflating, to say the least, as Jennings held a 41-26 lead at the half.
“That’s one where our heads got into the way,” said Andrus. “We told them to loosen up a step, and they didn’t and let him run right by them.
“That was a killer.”
From there, it was seemingly all Jennings in the third quarter as it would score twice more before Iota would do the same. That led to the team trading scores the remainder of the game.
Iota’s gameplan going into Friday was simple, improve itself and slow down Jennings’ offense. For one quarter it excelled minus a 69-yard touchdown by Etienne. Realistically, stopping Etienne seemed impossible, but slowing him down seemed plausible. However, every time Iota would seem to stuff Etienne at the line of scrimmage or even behind it, the powerful senior running back would bruise his way forward, or worst still reverse it for a long gain. Then, Soileau kept pace with Etienne and LeJeune provide compliments when needed. It was less than ideal for Iota.
“It wasn’t just [Etienne], we’ve got to tackle better,” said Andrus.
But, when Iota did have the ball, it did see positive output on just about every drive. Sophomore Kaleb Guillory had a career night rushing for 250 yards and four touchdowns on 36 carries. Not only were the numbers impressive, according to Andrus, but the way the sophomore ran.
“He made some good runs, made good moves,” he said. “He tried to run over guys instead of stepping out. He chose to run over a guy and I’m proud of him for it, because … he’s starting to get that killer mentality. He’s becoming a better all-around running back.
Freshman quarterback Trae Rambin showed improvement over last week as well. Coming off of a down performance last week, Rambin not only took a step forward statistically, he did so on the field stepping into pressure and delivering critical hits for Iota late. It was the improvement Andrus was looking for from his young quarterback.
“He made some good throws, some good reads,” he said. “Overall, he is a big improvement from last game to this game. The last game, I thought, he had his worst game statistically. But, he’s a freshman and you can expect some setbacks. He came back and bounced right back.”
Guillory’s 36-250 led Iota offensively. Alex Frey added six carries for 46 yards and a touchdown, Bliss Deshazo had two carries for 11 yards and Rambin scrambled once for three yards. Rambin finished his night 14-26 for 198 yards. He had one touchdown pass. Cade Covalt was Iota’s leading receiver with 118 yards on six catches. Deshazo had five catches for 46 yards.
Etienne’s night concluded with 17 carries for 260 yards and five touchdowns for Jennings. Soileau added 15 carries for 225 yards and two touchdowns, and LeJeune had five carries for 84 yards and a touchdown. He was 2-4 in the air for 43 yards. He had two touchdown passes and one interception. Taylor Joseph caught a 32-yard touchdown pass and Ian Cassidy an 11-yard touchdown.