Finishing strong

As the season winds to a close, the Ville Platte High Bulldogs (4-3, 1-1) have one mission on their minds; making the class 3A playoffs.
Ville Platte will take their number 34 power ranking into Prairie Rhonde this Friday, as they take on the Raiders of
Northwest High school in a pivotal District 5-3A encounter. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
“We are approaching it one game at a time,” said Ville Platte head coach Jorie Randle. “We have to continue winning and let the chips fall where they may. The power ranking system is funny, you can win and if the other teams you played throughout the season lose, it kind of evens itself out. But, if we can get on a roll here at the end of the season, we will definitely have a spot in the playoffs.”
Ville Platte took care of some very important business this past Friday, defeating Port Barre in a thrilling 6-0 overtime win.
The score was now indicative of the play of the Bulldog offense, as Ville Platte moved the ball in between the 20-yard lines, only to stall because of miscues.
“We did a decent job of moving the football,” stated Randle. “It just seemed like when we got things moving on offense there was some type of penalty that hampered our progress. We can’t continue to kill ourselves with mistakes and be successful.”
Ville Platte had nine penalties for 80 yards against Port Barre.
Defensively, the canine crew from Evangeline parish returned with a vengeance against the Red Devils, after surrendering 34 points and 282 yards to Eunice two weeks ago. The Bulldogs held Port Barre to a sparse 100 total yards of offense.
“Our defense came to play,” commented Randle. “We did a good job of checking to their plays. I really believe it was a pride thing this week. The defense wanted to come back strong after the performance they gave against Eunice. We are going to need them to play well the next few weeks.”
Northwest comes into the game with an overall record of 5-2 and 1-1 in district. The Raiders are averaging 35.1 points per game on offense and give up an average of 22.4 points per game on defense.
The only common opponent between the two teams is Eunice. The Raiders fell to the Bobcats 56-25 last week.
“Northwest is a solid ball club,” said Randle. “It seems like the last few years that we have played it has been a six point game or less. They mix it up on offense, but when it is crunch time, they are going to run the ball. We have to control the ball and try to contain their best player, Chris Lee. He is there go to guy. It should be a great matchup.”
Ville Platte is led offensively by Daylon Jones. The senior running back has 647 yards rushing on 133 carries and five touchdowns.
Senior quarterback Terez Alfred is another offensive threat for the Bulldogs. Alfred has shown that he can play multiple positions.