St. James 59 Vinton
30
St. James Scores ‘Early and Often’ in 59-30
Victory over Vinton
By Kenny HymelNovember
24, 2006
ST. JAMES, La –The St. James Wildcats matched last week’s early offensive performance by racking up 4 touchdowns in the first quarter, this time, in route to a 59-30 victory over the Vinton Lions in the quarterfinal round of the Class-2A playoffs played before a home crowd at Wildcat Stadium.
Quarterfinals mean that the game takes place on the day after Thanksgiving and with lots of people still on vacation, many Wildcat fans got their early for some tailgating.
St. James wasted no time getting an early jump. On the game’s very first play, Wildcat Antonio Phillips threw a screen pass to Luther Ambrose. Ambrose slipped through a tackle and found open field sprinting 61 yards for the score. Jaurelle Narcisse hit the extra point and just like that, St. James leads 7-0.
Kenny Zenon was next in line as he scored on an 11-yard run with 4:14 left in the first quarter. The extra point was no good, thus St. James led 13-0.
The Wildcats next score came on a superb reverse by Craig Duronslet. Duronslet’s score was 41 yards and an extra point gave the Wildcats a 20-0 lead with 2:25 left in the first quarter.
Two significant Wildcat defensive plays would occur on the next drive for Vinton. The first play was on third down when a Vinton receiver caught a pass that would have been enough for a first down, however, Wildcat Jaurelle Narcisse timed it perfectly and drilled the Vinton receiver, allowing the ball to pop out incomplete. The next significant play was the fourth down play where Vinton elected to call a fake punt. The punter’s pass to a wide open receiver was just a little too far down field as Luther Ambrose came up fast and delivered a devastating hit causing the ball to again pop out incomplete.
The Wildcat would get the ball back on downs and would make Vinton pay for their attempted trickery. On the first play of the drive, quarterback Antonio Phillips rolled out and fired a 27-yard pass to Craig Duronslet for the score. The extra point was no good and St. James led 26-0 to close out the first quarter.
Vinton’s football team, just like their fans, would never give up in this game. Vinton would be next to score and they would do so on a 6-yard run by Roderick Debruce with 8:56 left in the first half. The Vinton 2-point attempt was stopped by the Wildcats, thus the score was now 26-6.
The Wildcats then did the mark of a champion by marching right back down the field and matching the score. Luther Ambrose took a sweep to the left side for a 30-yard score with 7:46 left in the first half. The extra point was no good and St. James led 32-6.
The Wildcats would get one more score before halftime when Gary Davis scored on a 1-yard run. The extra point was good giving St. James a 39-6 lead going into halftime.
The Wildcats would get a nice interception and return from Demel Dumas which would set up the next score, a 1-yard run by Gary Davis.
Vinton would score next when Cody McBride caught a 28-yard pass.
The Wildcats would then score the next two touchdowns of the game. Gary Davis would score his third of the night on a 6-yard run. Ambrose would also score his third of the night, this time on a 2-yard run. With 1:35 left in the third quarter, St. James led 59-14.
Vinton would never hang their heads as they would score two more times, both in the fourth quarter. The first fourth-quarter score came on a 33-yard pass and the second came on a 33-yard run by Vinton’s star running back, Roderick Debruce.
Final score: St. James wins 59-30
NOTABLES Everyone found out that Luther Ambrose could not only run the football and catch passes but also “lay the leather” by delivering a hard hit on the defensive side of the ball.
Complements go out to the Vinton Lions and their fan base for not once hanging their heads and always staying upbeat and positive no matter what the score was. Vinton brought a good size crowd out and they had a good time no matter what. The Vinton fans set an excellent example of what a true high school football fan should be like.
The Wildcats will now gear up
for the state semi-final match-up which will be a rematch with the always tough
St. Charles Comets. St. James and St.
Charles have had great football games the last few years and it is very fair
to call the game a rivalry. This will
be the last time these two teams lock up for at least two years as St.
Charles will be moving up to 3A classification next season.
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