Ville Platte defeats Port Barre 6-0 in overtime thriller

PORT BARRE -- The Ville Platte Bulldogs scored on a half-back throw-back pass in overtime, beating the Red Devils here Friday evening, 6-0.
With the victory, Ville Platte improves to 4-3 on the season and 1-1 in District 5-3A. Port Barre falls to 0-2 in the district.
Next week, the Bulldogs travel to Northwest High School to play the 5-2 Raiders, who are tied with Ville Platte in the district race.
Friday evening, as the game wore on, it became increasingly clear that the team that could score would be the team to win. Neither Ville Platte nor Port Barre was able to show offensive consistency, as turnover and penalties slowed the teams down.
Port Barre got the ball first in the overtime period, but the Red Devils’ possession closed out on two straight incompletions.
Ville Platte’s possession of overtime started off very badly, too. The Bulldogs first two plays lost a yard. Then, on third-and-eleven, Bulldog head coach Jorie Randle opened up the playbook for the perfect call at the perfect time.
Lining up in the wing, quarterback Terez Alfred pitched the ball to Rodricas Fontenot, who is the team’s back-up quarterback. Fontenot feinted a right sweep. Meanwhile, Alfred ran a wheel-route out of the backfield into the left flat, where he was wide open.
Fontenot stopped his run, pitching the ball back to Alfred. Split end Trace Trahan gave a key block, and Alfred strolled into the corner of the end zone for the winning score.
Randle said that the team had practiced that play all summer during off-season workouts.
“The kids wanted to run it earlier tonight,” Randle said. “I wanted to wait until we were near the ten-yard line. When we finally got there in overtime, it was the moment to run it.
“Rodricus made a great throw,” Randle continued. “That’s not an easy play to stop his momentum and make a catchable pass back across the field. The line did its job of blocking, and Terez made a great catch.”
Port Barre head coach Mac Mistric agreed that it was the perfect play at that moment of the game.
“That was a helluva call,” Mistric said. “It was third and long. We had an all-out blitz called, and their line picked it up long enough for the play to work.”
Before the overtime period, the offenses were rather lackluster. Neither team got closer than its opponent’s 23-yard line. There were three interceptions and seven fumbles, five of which resulted in turnovers.
“We’re better than we showed tonight,” said an elated Randle, chalking up the miscues to youth. “We only have six seniors on the team, and we play a lot of young guys and guys who are just getting playing time this year.
“We want the best out of them, and they’re working hard, but they’re mostly 15 and 16-years old, and they lack experience and maturity.” he continued. “But, that’s coming as the season progresses.”
Port Barre certainly missed its starting offensive backfield. Both tailback JJ Sylvester and fullback Curtis Chavis sat out the game with injuries. Before getting hurt, Sylvester was the leading rusher in St. Landry Parish.
“Our defense played well,” Mistric commented, “but we really stunk it up on offense. When we lost JJ and Chavis, we lost our 1-2 punch.
“But, what really hurt us tonight was that we didn’t execute our offense well,” he said. “Give credit to Ville Platte for playing hard and making the play it needed to win, but we’re not going to beat anybody if we like we did tonight.”
Bulldog tailback Daylon Jones led all rushers with 118 yards on 31 carries. Ville Platte had just 120 total rushing yards. Port Barre had only 85 total rushing yards.