Improving each game

For the Sacred Heart Trojans, the focus of the last two weeks of the regular season has been to continue improving before they head into the long district season ahead.
Despite the 18-14 loss at the hands of Port Barre this past Friday, Sacred Heart head coach Josh Harper has seen his team make tremendous strides on both sides of the ball.
“This past week against Port Barre was better than the week before against Iota,” said Harper. “And it was definitely better that it was against St. Mary’s in the scrimmage. We have been improving every week. The one thing that has remained constant, however, has been the effort. The players have come to play week in and week out.”
Friday night against the Red Devils, the Trojans controlled the game from the second quarter on. It was a breakdown in the punting that allowed Port Barre to block a punt late in the game.
The Red Devils capitalized on that punt block and scored with only four minutes left in the game to take the win.
“We played really well against Port Barre,” stated Harper. “I thought we controlled the game most of the way. We had them where we wanted them. We just need to finish games. We didn’t do that against Iota.”
Improvement most definitely came in the run game for the Trojans. Against Iota, Sacred Heart was limited to less than 100 yards on the ground. However, against Port Barre, the Trojans rushed for more than 150 yards on a tough Red Devil defense. According to Harper, that total probably should have been greater.
“What hurt us in the run game was that we lost our tight end after he was ejected,” commented Harper. “Why he was ejected, I still do not have an explanation. .”
Without that stability at the tight end position, Sacred Heart could not run the one play that made them successful most of the night.
“When we lost Seth, we could not run the one play that we run so well, the power,” said Harper. “Our strong side run game was not as effective. We were gaining three to four yards every time we ran the power.”
Harper was also pleased with the progress made by his defensive unit, especially against the athletic Port Barre athletes.
“We preached all week to fly to the football on defense,” stated Harper. “Our guys on that side of the ball swarmed to the ball against Port Barre. We were very aggressive and we ganged tackled. It was a great effort by the defense.”
Sacred Heart will look to continue improving as they travel to Houma Thursday to take on the Houma Christian Warriors. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
For Harper and the Trojans, there is one important key to their matchup against the Warriors.
“We must cut down on turnovers,” said Harper. “The last two games we have had too many mistakes. We cannot continue to do that and expect to be a good football team. If we can do that and remain solid in our assignment football, we will be okay.
“Houma Christian is a strong team,” Harper continued. “They will be bigger than us. They look very similar to St. Mary’s in the type of offense they run, but favor Iota in the type of players they have. We will try to meld four day practice plan into three days to get ready for Thursday.”