Sacred Heart faces another challenge against Loreauville

Another challenge awaits the Sacred Heart Trojans (2-4, 1-2) as they host the Loreauville Tigers (4-2, 1-2) Friday night in a district 5-2A contest at Soileau/Landry field. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
Sacred Heart is coming off of a rough 61-0 loss to powerful Notre Dame this past Friday. According to Trojan head coach Josh Harper, it wasn’t so much the loss but the effort given in the course of the game against the Pioneers that is a little disconcerting.
“When you are playing arguably the number one team in the state, you have to embrace that challenge,” said Harper. “You have to see where you stand against a team like Notre Dame. I don’t think we gave the effort between the lines like I would have wanted. No matter what the scoreboard says, you have to have some pride in your overall effort and we did not do that throughout the entire game.”
Sacred Heart found it very hard to muster any type of offense against the Pioneers and their stingy defense. The Trojans were held to minus 19 yards rushing and only 23 total yards.
“They are so good defensively,” stated Harper. “We just could not move the football on them. I didn’t think our execution was bad, it’s just we could not get the advantage up front on those guys.”
Defensively, Sacred Heart had no answer for the Notre Dame offense, being outweighed up front by an average of over 40 pounds per man. On top of that, the Trojans were without a handful of starters on both sides of the ball due to various injuries, including Jacob L. Lafleur, John Christian Lahaye, Lance Perry and Lance Costanza.
“We have had a number of injuries in the past few weeks that has played havoc with our depth,” commented Harper. “Hopefully we can get Nick Perry back this week. We are still waiting on John Christian Lahaye and Lance Costanza. I think we have lost Jacob L. Lafleur for the season, which is a big blow to our team in terms of his leadership and his play.”
Loreauville is no stranger to success. The Tigers have made the playoffs the last six years in a row, even playing in the state semi-finals in 2013
The Tigers come into the contest against Sacred Heart averaging 33.6 points per game on offense and have held their opponents to an average of 22 points per game.
“They are big in size, probably as big as Notre Dame is up front,” said Harper. “They have some really good athletes and some good team speed. However, Delcambre moved the ball on them. So, hopefully we can get something going on offense and try to control the clock. We cannot allow them to get into open space when they have the ball.”