Ville Platte’s sloppy performance leads to Northwest victory

VILLE PLATTE - It was a sloppy loss in more ways than one.
A combination of mud and poor execution doomed the Ville Platte Bulldogs, who lost 54-6 to the undefeated Northwest Raiders Friday evening.
With the loss Ville Platte falls to 4-4 on the season and 1-2 in District 5-3A. The Bulldogs will travel to intra-parish rival Pine Prairie next Friday.
Ville Platte fumbled six times, losing four of them. The Raiders converted one of the turnovers into a 45-yard touchdown return as time expired in the third quarter.
In addition, the Bulldogs had poor snaps on three punts. Twice, Northwest scored directly off of the bad snap. On the opening drive of the game, a bad snap near the Bulldog end zone gave the Raiders a safety. In the third quarter, a bad snap turned into a Northwest touchdown on a 25-yard return.
In addition, the Bulldogs had confusion on offense, often lining up incorrectly for the play called. Plus, the exchanges between the quarterback and running backs were inconsistent.
Northwest was never pushed to make long drives to score. The Raiders scored 54 points, but only had 190 yards of total offense. Ville Platte, meanwhile, had minus 21 yards rushing.
“This was our worst performance of the season,” Randle admitted. “It had better be our last bad performance. If we want to stay in the playoff hunt, we are going to have to watch the film, breakdown our mistakes, and correct them before next week.”
Randle, however, was quick to give credit to the Raiders.
“My hat’s off to Northwest’s players,” he continued. “They did what playoff caliber teams do. We both made mistakes, but they were able to capitalize off of ours, and we didn’t take advantage of theirs.”
From the opening series of the game the Bulldogs showed signs of problems to come. After a huge third down sack, Ville Platte sent the snap on the punt out of the back of their end zone, giving Northwest a 2-0 lead on the safety.
On the next series, the ’Dog’s defense played very well with the exception of one play, but it was a huge mistake. Following a holding penalty, Northwest had first-and- goal from the Ville Platte 17-yard line.
The Raiders tried two pass plays, both of which were broken up by the Bulldog defense. On third down, Raider quarterback Terrel Guillory hit a wide-open Dylan Guillory in the end zone for a touchdown. There was no Bulldog defender within ten yards of Guillory.
Ville Platte was offsides on the extra-point try, so Northwest decided to go for two-points after the penalty. Mekhi Hammond scored on a two-yard run, putting Northwest up 10-0.
The Bulldogs responded on their next drive, giving some hope to the Ville Platte faithful. On the drive, quarterback Brandon Veazie completed three passes, including a 35-yard toss to Martin Jason, who made a great catch on a fly route. The point-after- try failed, but the ’Dogs had closed the gap, 10-6.
The rest of the first quarter, and into the second quarter, Ville Platte seemed to be holding its own against Northwest. Ville Platte’s defense recorded two fumble recoveries by linebacker Tralon Thomas and Javonsky Leday; but the offense couldn’t find its groove again.
Then, the problems started compounding for the Bulldogs.
Ville Platte fumbled on its own one-yard line. Northwest scored three plays later on a Kelvin Shorter run. Kevin Lopez made the first of his five PAT’s to put the Raiders up 17-6.
Northwest scored again with 36 seconds left in the half, as Abraham Gordwin made a fingertip catch for a 36-yard score. After another Bulldog penalty on the extra point try, Northwest decided to try for two points again. But, like the first time, they failed, giving them a 23-6 halftime lead.
The trend at the end of the first half was bad for Ville Platte. In the third quarter, the trend just got worse, as Northwest scored 24 points in the period. This was even with the teams playing running time for most the quarter.
Northwest increased its lead to 26-6 with a 21-yard Lopez field goal. Then, the Raiders recovered a bad punt snap, returning it 25-yards for a touchdown.
Northwest scored again following another bad punt snap that gave them the ball on the Bulldog 10-yard line. Three plays later, Matthew Rideau scored on a one-yard run.
On the very next Bulldog play, Ville Platte fumbled the ball, and Northwest scooped up the loose ball for a 45-yard touchdown return.
Lopez made all three of his extra point tries, putting Northwest up 47-6 at the end of the third quarter.
The final Raider touchdown came in the fourth quarter. Despite leading by 41 points, and with the Bulldogs agreeing to play running time, Raider head coach Chris Edwards chose to keep his first-team offense in the game.
Edwards’ next call was a pass play, which turned into a 39-yard touchdown for August Pitre. After the score, Lopez’s PAT gave Northwest the 54-6 win.