Notre Dame shuts out Abbeville

CROWLEY – A smothering Notre Dame defense logged its third straight district shutout and the offense scored on eight of eleven possessions in a 57-0 win over Abbeville Friday at Gardiner Stadium. It went about expected on the scoreboard, but was a tougher challenge between the sidelines that was welcomed by Pios coach Lewis Cook.
“We come in and everybody expects we are just going to walk all over them, but they came to play and we wanted to have to be able to force the issue a little bit. You get in a game like this and you just never know how it is going to go. I was just hoping we would come out and play hard, be efficient, not turn the ball over and not have a lot of penalties.”
The Pios defense established control from the first play when Nate Link dropped Abbeville quarterback Demarcus Collins for a three yard loss. Conner Kirsch and Trey Vautrot sacked Collins on a third down play to force a punt.
Notre Dame marched 56 yards in 11 plays for the first score. Damon Comeaux started the drive with runs of 14 and 11 yards and QB Brad Stoma connected with Dillan Gilbert on a five yard touchdown pass for a 7-0 lead.
Abbeville runningback Buck Morris turned the corner for a 52 yard run down to the Pios 25 yard line on the next series. The threat was quickly silenced on a third down sack by James McCleary and Trey Vautrot and a fourth down sack by Conner Kirsch.
“They scrambled out a couple of times in the first quarter for some positive plays,” added Cook. “They had nothing to lose, so they came out and really fought hard, but our defensive front was putting so much pressure on them. We know what that is like because we went up against our defensive front in spring training and all of August practices and man it is tough.”
QB Stoma got the Pios back in Wildcat territory with a deep throw down the middle. Boedy Borill stretched out for a diving catch and a 32 yard completion. Joe Faulk scored on a two yard run a minute into the second quarter for a 14-0 lead after the Dustin Reiners extra point.
“Brad made some nice throws and Boedy made a heck of a catch down the middle,” noted Cook. “We just have to give him the opportunity to pull the trigger on it.”
One of those nice throws came on the next Pios possession. After Hayden Bourgeois returned a punt to the Wildcats 27, Damon Comeaux slashed for a 17 yard run. Stoma then drilled a pass between defenders for a 10 yard Td to Hunter Miller a d a 21-0 lead.
“We lined up and I saw the safety playing up on the weak side,” explained Cook. “I was hoping he would throw to the right. We had a tight end running an arrow route and Hunter was on a quick slant. Brad had a little mustard on that throw.”
Three plays later, James McCleary came off the edge to sack Abbeville QB Collins and force another of what would be eight Abbeville punts on the night. On first down from the Wildcats 35, Pios fullback Ivy Paul Robichaux barreled for 33 yards and later scored on a 1 yard dive to make the Pios lead 27-0 at halftime.
“I told the kids at halftime that I was a little disappointed,” Cook said. “We got sacked on two dropback passes because we didn’t have much time and couldn’t get it out either time. We ran some different formations and we were able to cover some things. We wanted to get a couple of good possessions in the third quarter to work on some balance.”
Instead, Cook got an 83 yard touchdown run from Damon Comeaux on the first play of the second half to extend the lead to 34-0. Comeaux darted through an opening on the left side and was cruising down the left sideline when a Wildcat defender angled over near midfield. Comeaux planted his left foot and changed direction as the defender helplessly ran past. Comeuax finished the night with 130 yards on nine carries.
“That was a great run,” smiled Cook. “We made some good blocks on that play, but Damon made that play happen.”
The Pios defense kept Abbeville backed up near its goal line all night. The Wildcats couldn’t get much going the rest of the way, finishing with just 15 yards of offense on 46 snaps. Conner Kirsch and Nate Link each recorded nine tackles and Trey Vautrot had eight. Kirsch and Vautrot each had 4 sacks as the defense totaled 16 sacks and 20 tackles for loss yardage in the game.
From the Abbeville 45, Pios QB Brad Stoma took advantage of the aggressive pursuit from Abbeville with a throw back screen that went for a touchdown. Ivy Paul Robichaux slipped out against the flow to take the pass near the line of scrimmage and then sidestepped two defenders to take it the distance.
“We ran a counter sweep last week from that formation, “explained Cook. “They blitzed the corner and I’m thinking who does that, but we changed the flow and the corner thought it was a run. That’s why Ivy was so wide open. The corner was right in Brad’s face and for him to get the ball out of there on that play, all I can say is wow.”
Stoma had a big night completing 10 of 13 passes for 159 yards and three touchdowns. His completions were spread around eight different receivers.
A snap over the punter and out the end zone gave Notre Dame a safety on the next series. With a 43-0 lead and time running out in the third quarter, Cook retired his starters for the night.
“I was glad we got to play our guys deep into the game. Last year, we went to Abbeville and didn’t play the starters a down in the second half. Last week, they lost on the last play of the game. They are competitive, they just haven’t won. Tonight, we took our team right up to the fourth quarter and we needed that for our guys for down the road.”
Pios reserves took it the rest of the way and added two scores to the final. Gabe Petry had a 26 yard run with Justin Guidry finishing the drive from a yard out to make it 50-0.
Sam Hoffpauir powered for 23 yards to convert a third down on the final offensive series of the night. Justin Guidry got his second TD run of the quarter from two yards out to cap the scoring on a 57-0 win.
The Pios will travel to North Vermilion next week. The Patriots defeated West St. Mary to go 2-1 in district play and 3-5 overall. For Cook and his Pios it is business as usual.
“Since the first district game, we’ve been preaching about just concerning ourselves with Notre Dame and we’ll continue to do that all the way through. This is another week where we have to just worry about us. It doesn’t matter whether we are playing LaGrange, Teurlings or Abbeville, we aren’t going to do anything different. We have to do the same things, practice the same way and execute the same way. We just have to continue to concern ourselves with us and get ourselves ready, hope to stay healthy and hope that we are playing good at the end of the season.”