Patriots fail to pull of upset, fall to Jennings

North Vermilion’s hopes of continuing a cinderella playoff run for ended at home with a 21-18 loss to the No. 11 seed Jennings Bulldogs Friday night.
In a battle between two physical teams, it came down to the final play of the game, a Ty Desormeaux incompletion as time expired to propel Jennings into a quarterfinal matchup at home against Amite.
“I thought it was a great high school football game,” said Jennings head coach Rusty Phelps. “I want to congratulate North Vermilion. I thought they played extremely well.”
Jennings scored the first points of the game. After each team traded punts, a 39-yard run by Jacob Soileau set up a 13-yard touchdown run by sophomore Travis Etienne to put the Bulldogs up 7-0 midway through the first quarter.
The defenses of both teams shut the opposing offenses down until North Vermilion was able to tie the game on a 3-yard touchdown run by wide receiver Dade Dieterich with 5:37 remaining before halftime.
That was enough time for Jennings to reel of a five-minute drive capped off by an 8-yard touchdown pass from Kaleb Chaisson to Etienne to give the Bulldogs a 14-7 lead.
With 30 seconds left before halftime, it looked like the Patriots would try to get some points, but a costly penalty dampened those hopes.
“Right at the half we got behind the eight ball,” said North Vermilion head coach Richard Prejean. “We had a couple of penalties, and it ends up turning the flow of the game.”
The teams traded punts out of halftime, then North Vermilion was able to get a 27-yard field goal off of a 12-play drive that lasted over five minutes to cut the deficit to four points.
After that score, Jennings began to run their offense methodically, slowing the pace down.
They were able to extend their lead to 21-10 on 12-yard run by Luke Trahan that was fumbled in the endzone and recovered by Dylan Oustalet with under four minutes left in the game.
A 26-yard run by Etienne on third down was the key play that setup the touchdown on that drive.
North Vermilion responded quickly. A 70-yard drive was capped off by a 37-yard screen pass from Desormeaux to Taylor Abshire.
A successful 2-point conversion cut the Bulldogs’ lead to 3 points with 2:28 left.
Jennings recovered the onside kick attempt by the Patriots at midfield. Looking to get firstdowns to kill the clock, Etienne broke a 10-yard run for a key first down, and three plays later, Trahan delivered a 23-yard run up the gut to run more time off the clock.
“Luke’s been a guy that delivers a lot of body blows throughout the course of a game,” Phelps said. “He’s our fourth quarter guy. He did a heck of a job all night.”
The Patriots were able to get the ball back with 30 seconds left after stopping Jennings in the redzone.
North Vermilion started the drive at the 9-yard line, and after three plays, had moved the ball to the Jennings 47 with 10 seconds left.
Desormeaux rolled out and threw the ball up for grabs, but the Jennings defender batted the ball down to end North Vermilion’s season.
In a losing effort, Desormeaux threw for 267 yards and one score. Dupuy was the leading receiver with four catches for 111 yards, including two great diving receptions. Abshire handled most of the rushing duties for North Vermilion. He earned 35 yards on 14 carries.
“For our program this is huge,” Prejean said. “For us to be in this ballgame late, and to have a chance to kick a field goal to send it to overtime is tremendous for us. This game goes a long way for our program.”
Chaisson threw two interceptions, and at times Jennings struggled to move the ball, but Phelps said he was grateful to move on to the next round.
“It wasn’t pretty, but we just found a way,” he said. “I’m glad to be going to the third round. We stood up when we had to. I’m real proud of the coaching staff and the players. We came down here and gutted one out.”
Jennings will be in action at home next week against No. 3 seed Amite. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.