Game Of The Week 

And We Are Off With The 2023-24 LHSAA Football Season – Week 1 Central Wildcats host De La Salle Cavaliers

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Contributor and Publisher: Jo Eddlemon 

Cover Photo: Senior OC Andrew Richard – Central Wildcats

The LHSAA 2023-24 Football Season is off and running and the Week 1 games are now in the books.

The GOTW for Recruit Louisiana was a short trip down the road to check out the Central Wildcats, as they hosted the De La Salle Cavaliers out of NOLA.

The Central Wildcats, under new head coach David Simoneaux, certainly looked impressive in both size, physicality, and speed.

The best way to describe the De La Salle Cavaliers would be gritty and composed.

While it was a defensive battle most of the game between the two teams, De La Salle’s running back Jason Banks proved to be the dagger for the Wildcats, as the Cavaliers took the victory Friday night.

Banks led his Cavaliers in the run game with 115 yards on 13 Carries, three touchdowns (2 rushing, 1 special teams).  His final score in the fourth quarter was a 28 yard touchdown run to put the Cavaliers in the lead 27-20.  De La Salle’s defense stepped up to stop the Wildcats from moving the ball down the field.  A blocked field goal attempt, numerous key stops in the red zone, and an interception were keys plays in the last 4 minutes to seal the victory for De La Salle.

Tale Of The Tape:

De La Salle accounted for 195 yards rushing on the Wildcats, Jason Banks (115 yards) and Kobe Pound (80 yrds)

Central jumped on the board first with a little razzle dazzle pass for a touchdown to lead 7-0 with 4:23 left in the 1st quarter. On 2nd and 3, Central’s junior quarterback Jackson Firmin tosses an out pass to Damon Blocker, who then found James Hussey all alone and Hussey scampers into the endzone for a 58-yard touchdown.

De La Salle would answer with a one yard run from running back Jason Banks at the 11:27 point in the 2nd quarter. Banks set up the touchdown after a big 52 yard scamper down the field.

A bad snap over the Central punter’s head led to the second score of the game for the Cavaliers, as Jason Banks would scoop up the fumbled punt snap and rumbled 12 yards into the endzone to bring the score to 13-7 De La Salle at the 8:10 mark of the 2nd quarter.

Central Wildcats special teams would then step up as Central’s Blayson Stokan partially blocks De La Salle’s Noah Rogers’ punt, setting up a short field.  The Wildcat offense took over at their 35 and three plays later junior quarterback Jackson Firmin throws a strike to freshman wide receiver Tyrann Williams.  That would be Williams’ first varsity touchdown.

The teams would go into the locker room at halftime with the score tied at 13.

The defensive game continued in the second half with a key stop by the Cavaliers at the 6:34 mark in the 3rd.  The Wildcats choose to go for it on 4th down and 2.  The Cavalier defense stuffed quarterback Jackson Firmin on a quarterback keep for no gain and took over on downs.

De La Salle would march down the field and finish the drive with a 2 yard run to senior running back Kobe Pounds, who pushed his way into the endzone to bring the score to 20-13 De La Salle at the 5:23 mark of the 3rd quarter.

Late in the third quarter, the Wildcats marched down the field but the De La Salle stepped up again and forced Central to attempt a 26 yard field goal.  After a low snap and bad placement, Nathan Zimmer’s attempt was blocked by Tim Maxson (#9, DT 6’2″ 260) ending the threat.

Starting the fourth quarter, Central found itself a touchdown down.  Both teams would continue to battle in the trenches but De La Salle would find the endzone one more time with 4:47 left in the game when De La Salle’s Jason Banks would burst through the hole and break several tackles to find the endzone one more time, his third (2 rushing, 1 special teams) touchdown of the game.

With the score at 27-13 De La Salle, the Wildcats were not going away and found the endzone with 4:03 left in the game, when Jackson Firmin lets it fly for a 52 yard pass and catch to close the gap to 20-27 Cavalier lead.

The Wildcats had one more chance, after an outstanding defensive stance, with 2:47 left in the game.  De La Salle’s defense had other ideas.  They would again make an outstanding defensive play, when linebacker Drew Johnson stepped up and intercepted Firmin’s pass to end Central’s last drive of the game with 2:13 left in the game.

The Cavaliers would then run out the clock and take the victory back to NOLA.

Stats for Jason Banks, De La Salle: 115 yards on 13 carries. (1-yard touchdown in second quarter, 28-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter – four runs of 10 yards or longer, including the 52-yard gain on De La Salle’s second play of the third quarter.)

GAME HIGHLIGHTS:

Corrections or typos: please remail to recruitlouisiana@gmail.com

Recruit Louisiana

Jo Fleming Eddlemon is a Graduate of Northeast Louisiana University (ULM). She was born and Raised in the Boot. Content editor for Recruit Louisiana, Correspondent for Tigerbait.com, Member of the Louisiana Sports Writer Association, LSWA and Association for Women in Sports Media, AWSM. She received her experience from time working in the Sports Information Office at NLU during college and also as a former writer, scout, analyst for the Varsity Preps group and former XOS Digital. She is all about showing you the best players in the Boot and the surrounding Southern Region. Moto: God, Grades, and Grind

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