Kaplan takes care of Westminister

LAFAYETTE - “We did what we wanted.”
Those were the words of Stephen Lotief, head football coach of the Kaplan Pirates, not too long after a dominant 32-6 victory over the Westminster Crusaders on Thursday night. The veteran coach was proud of his team, which struggled in the first two games of the season.
Dropping the first game to Lafayette High and getting shut out a second time in a row by Church Point a week later, the Pirates were looking for good news. It came almost halfway through the first quarter, when quarterback Daniel Lotief led the squad down the field and ended the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run. The Pirates would score two more times to make it a 20-0 game after the first half.
One of the scores came from a 21-yard run from Grant Frick. The other came right before the end of the second quarter, with Frick running it in again, this time from 7 yards out.
“I think we ended up controlling the ball for about three quarters of the game,” said coach Lotief. “We did a lot of good out there.”
A lot of the good came from a return to fundamentals, he explained.
“We cut down on a lot of turnovers and controlled the line of scrimmage. In a game like this, we chose not to get fancy with the playbook,” he added. “We scaled it back and focused on a lot more of the fundamentals of the game.”
The second half of the game saw three more scores, two of them from the Pirates. Darren Istre picked up a pair of touchdowns for the Pirates, one of which was on a 29-yard run and the other was the result of a 22-yard run.
Westminster would score the final touchdown of the game, but would be unable to do much else against a dominant Pirate defense.
The problems Kaplan face are still major, and will require a lot of work to overcome.
Starting quarterback Jade Herpin is still out after a nasty shot he took out of bounds against Lafayette. Two defensive stars Nigel Pascual and K.C. Cass are also both out for the moment. That leaves a lot of young backups to take the reins and help the Pirates through the next several games.
When asked if it was good experience for the younger players’ future, Lotief chuckled and said “The future is now.”
Istre led the Pirates in rushing, with 108 yards to his name on Thursday night in just 7 runs, and two touchdowns among them. Julius Johnson picked up 75 yards in 14 rushing attempts, and right behind him was Grant Frick, who went 74 yards in eight rushing attempts. He also picked up two touchdowns. Daniel Lotief went 4-5 in passing attempts and threw for 87 yards.
The Crusaders will try to right their wrongs in time for next week’s game versus White Castle.
The next challenge for Kaplan is a big one as they face off against Iowa this week in a homecoming battle.