Ville Platte takes on perennial powerhouse Notre Dame

It does not get any easier for the Ville Platte High Bulldogs this week.
After falling to Kinder this past Friday, one of the best teams in Class 2A the past four years, the Bulldogs (2-5, 0-2) must now travel to Crowley to face off against one of the best teams in all classes, the Notre Dame Pioneers. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
Notre Dame comes into the contest with an overall record of 6-0 and is 1-0 in district play. The Pioneers average 40.2 points per game on offense and have given up an average of 10 points per game on defense. Besides Kinder, who put up 37 points on Notre Dame, no other team has scored more than seven points on the Pioneer defense.
“Listen, Notre Dame is the standard by which all programs aspire to be,” stated Ville Platte head coach Jorie Randle. “When you look at this year’s version, they don’t seem to be that physical pound it down the throat team. They like to run the ball to the outside more on the stretch plays and they get in more three by one and doubles sets than normal.”
“But, you know they are going to be coached up and they are going to do everything the right way,” he continued. “Their running back finds the holes quickly and once he plants and commits to a hole, it looks like he has been shot out of a cannon. Maybe, I am just holding them to a high standard and comparing them to what I have seen in the past.”
Last week against Kinder, the Bulldogs struggled mightily on offensive, getting only 148 yards of offense and turning the ball over on four different occasions.
“Kinder was a quality ball club,” stated Randle. “I thought we had some chances that we could have capitalized on. I knew this year we would have to be an offensive driven team. But when you get off to a slow start, you put a lot of pressure on your defense.”