Panther offense sputters in loss to East Beauregard

The Pine Prairie Panthers came into the season knowing that the offense would take some time to grow and mature. Head Coach Yves Prince and his staff were hoping it would happen sooner than later. After a 14-0 loss to the East Beauregard Trojans on Thursday, the consensus is that it will take some more time before the offense completely turns the corner. In the game, Pine Prairie could only manage to accumulate 79 yards of total offense on 38 plays, while picking up only eight first downs.
Coach Prince lamented on his offensive struggles. “We struggled a little bit on offense tonight,” said Prince. “It seems like every time we get chances to score, we go backwards. It’s one of those things that keeps haunting us. When you have young offensive linemen, they sometimes mess up and miss blocking assignments. We need to get it going on offense if we want to compete in the district. Overall, our effort was there, even though we did not finish off the chances we had.”
Both Pine Prairie and East Beauregard could not muster much offense on their respective opening drives. In fact, the Trojans fumbled on the fourth play they had the ball. The Panthers’ Douglas Fontenot recovered the ball at the Trojan 49 yard line. Even with the great field position, Pine Prairie was forced to punt the ball after gaining only two yards in three plays.
From their second possession of the game going forward, East Beauregard controlled the game. Most of the Trojan offense came on the ground, as they out-rushed Pine Prairie 248-47 yards. The Trojans took the ball the second time in the game and drove all the way to the Panther’s six yard line. The Panther defense stiffened and forced a turnover on downs. However, Pine Prairie could not bring the ball beyond their 32 yard line and were forced to punt once again.
After a 31-yard punt by Dylan Doucet, the East Beauregard offense was once again on the move. This time, the Panther defense could not stop the Trojans from reaching pay dirt. East Beauregard drove 63 yards in 11 plays and scored on a seven-yard touchdown run from Travis Dultry. The two-point conversion failed and with 7:43 left in the half, the Trojans led 6-0.
Pine Prairie’s next possession resulted in a fumble at the Trojan 44 yard line. East Beauregard continued to control the ground as they marched down to the Panther one yard line. The drive ended when time ran out to end the half. The score remained 6-0 at halftime.
Pine Prairie took the kickoff to start the third quarter and put together a decent drive that put the ball at the East Beauregard 24 yard line. Once again, the Panthers were forced to turn the ball over to the Trojans. East Beauregard did not waste the possession given to them, as they ground out a 76 yard touchdown drive in 16 plays. All but one of those 16 plays was a running play. Kade Jackson finished off the drive by taking the handoff into the end zone from two yards out. The two point conversion was successful and East Beauregard now led 14-0 with 2:35 left in the third quarter.
An errant kickoff from East Beauregard gave Pine Prairie the ball with tremendous field position at the Trojan 49 yard line. Thirteen plays later, the Panthers held the ball at the Trojan 11 yard line and looked poised to put points on the board. Then disaster struck for Pine Prairie, as they lost 23 yards in successive plays and were faced with a fourth and 42 from the East Beauregard 43 yard line. A pass attempt from Dylan Doucet to Javon Ardoin fell incomplete and thus ended any hope of a comeback.
For the game, Dylan Doucet led all Panther rushers with 23 yards on nine carries. He also completed four out of eight pass attempts for 32 yards. Javon Ardoin was the leading receiver for Pine Prairie. Ardoin had three receptions for 28 yards. The Panther defense was led by Doucet, who earned 15 tackles on the night. Joshua Fontenot added another 13 tackles.
“I thought we had a good defensive game plan going into the game to slow them down,” stated Prince. “Our defense played well, even though they had to stay on the field for most of the game. They stood up to the challenge and never quit. I really believe our program is headed in the right direction. In the past, we would have probably lost by a bigger margin. We are in good shape physically, we just need to make sure we stay mentally ready and not have any let downs.”
With the loss, Pine Prairie now falls to 1-1 on the young season. They will play the Mamou Green Demons Friday at home in an inter-parish rivalry game. Mamou is 1-1 after beating South Cameron 33-7.
Coach Prince and his staff will have to continue to work on getting the young offense to move in the right direction. The Panthers will need both sides of the ball to be successful if they hope to garner any more victories this season.