LHS Wildcats overpower Bulldogs

Rushing. Passing. Pick-six. Kick-off return. Punt return.
The second-ranked Livonia Wildcats scored almost every way possible en route to a 50-25 blistering of the Ville Platte Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs fall to 3-4 on the year and 1-2 in District 5-3A.  Ville Platte visits Church Point next week in an important match-up.
Livonia, state semi-finalists last year, improve to 8-0 on the season and 3-0 in the district.
Against Ville Platte Friday night, the Wildcats were too much to handle too early in the game.  The Bulldogs fell behind 21-0 midway through the first quarter and simply couldn’t catch up.
Wildcat head coach David Brewerton was pleased with his team’s fast start.
“The last couple of weeks, we’ve been very lethargic in our play,” he said.  “This week, I challenged our guys to play their hearts out from the get-go.  I wanted to see them set the tone early in the game.”
Livonia didn’t waste any time setting the tone.  On the Wildcats’ first drive, they moved the ball steadily down the field.  Tailback Russell Farris scored on a three-yard plunge over the goal line, and Henry Frech made the Point-After-Try for a 7-0 lead.
Exactly one minute later, Livonia scored again.
The Wildcats’ Darius Hammond returned a 45-yard interception for a touchdown.  The fake PAT failed, but Livonia was leading 13-0 just five minutes into the game.
The Wildcats almost scored on the very next play.  Ville Platte muffed the kick-off return, and a Livonia player scooped the ball and returned it to the end zone.
However, because it was ruled a muff – not a fumble – the ball couldn’t be advanced.
But, that was no problem for the Wildcat offense.  Three plays later Malcolm Dietrich dove over the goal line from the one-yard line.  Quarterback Kerry Savoy scored the two-point conversion on a quarterback keeper.
At the 5:31 mark of the first quarter, Livonia was already up 21-0.
Following another interception that killed a Bulldog drive, the Wildcats added another score midway through the second quarter.  CJ Powell hauled in a short pass on the left sideline and turned on the jets, streaking 50 yards for the touchdown.  Frech’s kick was good, and Livonia was up 28-0.
“That’s a big hole to get out of,” Bulldog head coach Tracey Jagneaux admitted after the game.  “We gave up way too many points to start the game.  We gave them the opportunities, and they took advantage of them.”
Despite the sudden shock, Jagneaux was proud of the way his team responded.
“It would have been easy for our team to just shut it down, to stop scrapping and playing hard,” Jagneaux said.  “But they didn’t quit.  They kept battling on every play, and we started to get back in it.”
With less than seven minutes to play before halftime, Ville Platte finally got a big play of its own.  Quarterback Isaiah Thomas hit tailback Jermarcus Jones on a middle screen.  The fleet-footed senior went 68 yards to pay dirt.  The PAT failed, but the Bulldogs were on the scoreboard, 28-6.
Suddenly, the Bulldogs were riding a wave of emotion.  The ‘Dog defense came up with a huge stop on fourth-and-inches to force a turnover on downs, and Ville Platte’s offense took over at midfield.
Thomas mishandled the snap, but the senior signal caller impressively turned a loss into a big gain.  Thomas picked up the ball and scrambled up field for 46 yards.  
Two plays later Jones scored on a three-yard run.  The two-point conversion failed, but Ville Platte cut the lead to 28-12 going into the locker room.
“The momentum had definitely switched over to us at halftime,” Jagneaux noted.  “If we had kept it to start the second half, who knows how things might have turned out.”
As it was, the ‘Dogs lost the momentum on the first play of the third quarter.  Dietrich took the second half kick-off 75 yards for the score.  The PAT failed, but the Wildcats were back up by three scores, 34-12.    Sensing an opportunity to put the game out of reach for good, Livonia’s defense forced a punt on the next Bulldog possession.
The Wildcat offense followed it up with another touchdown.  This time, Farris broke free for a 36-yard score.  Despite another failed PAT, with less than three minutes gone in the second half, Livonia was back on top by four scores, 40-12.
The Wildcats extended the lead on its next drive, 43-12, on a 32-yard Frech field goal.
Finally, Livonia scored on an 80-yard Hammond punt return on the first play of the fourth quarter.  Frech nailed the extra point.  With 11:32 left to play in the game, Livonia hit the half-century mark, 50-12.
At this point, the Wildcats put in its second-team offense and defense.
The Bulldogs did score two more times before the game ended.  Jones scored on an eight-yard run, but the PAT failed.
Later, Thomas hit senior tight end Kendall Ardoin for a 10-yard touchdown pass.  Place kicker Pedro Dos Santos made the extra point, setting the score, 50-25.