CALENDAR
September 29, 2015
Cancelling card doesn’t erase your credit history
September 29, 2015
The Thibodaux High School football team could have easily panicked when they were 0-2.
That never happened.
Instead, the team channeled their energy into turning around and saving their season.
The Tigers started slow in 2015 – an outcome that was pretty predictable when one factors in the number of starters that Thibodaux lost off last year’s 10-win team.
But since the early-season struggles, the Tigers have prospered and have won two-straight. The team soundly defeated South Lafourche last week before walloping Terrebonne on Friday to open district play.
Tigers coach Chris Dugas said the team’s successes aren’t a giant surprise. He knew this group could be good once they meshed, got experience and created their own identity.
“We dropped a couple of tough ones to start the season, but I think the most important thing is that we keep getting better and better every, single week,” Dugas said. “We knew coming in that we had talented playmakers who could make plays if we took care of the line of scrimmage. We told the guys to not panic and to continue to let the season play itself out.”
The key to Thibodaux’s recent surge of success has been dominance at the line of scrimmage.
In the first few games of the season, the Tigers struggled in the trenches and were outwitted by stout opposition.
Thibodaux lost all five starting offensive linemen to graduation last season, which created a void that the Tigers had to fill.
In the season-opener against the dominant St. Charles Catholic defense, Thibodaux’s inexperienced blockers struggled mightily. The Tigers lost that game 31-0 and never threatened the end zone at any point in the game.
After the game, Dugas called the loss one of the worst games that his offense had ever played in his head coaching career.
“We really, really struggled early in the season,” Dugas said.
But the Tigers have battled back.
In Week 2, Thibodaux took a solid East Ascension team down to the wire before losing a tough, hard-fought 21-18 game. In that contest, the Tigers had a late touchdown called back by a penalty – a score that would have given the team the lead and possibly the victory.
Even in defeat, the team blocked better against East Ascension than it did in the season opener, showing signs of rounding into form.
The next week proved exactly that.
Against South Lafourche, the Tigers controlled the line of scrimmage from start-to-finish.
Thibodaux rushed for more than 400 yards against the rival, gashing the Tarpons on both the inside and outside for big-time yardage.
In the middle, big Dane Benoit was a force, scoring two touchdowns and generating more than 100 yards on the ground.
On the edges, Donnell Adair, Amik Robertson and quarterback Trey LeBlanc made plays – each running through the giant holes that were being paved by the team’s dominant offensive line.
“They beat us up at the line of scrimmage,” South Lafourche football coach Dennis Skains said. “They have great athletes up and down the field. If they block as well as they did tonight, that’s a heck of a football team. They controlled the trenches on both sides of the ball.”
That effort followed up on Friday against Terrebonne, and the Tigers walloped their cross-parish rivals with more big-play offense.
When the Tigers are able to score in volume they’re tough because their defense is good and very experienced.
Where Thibodaux’s offense was depleted by graduation, the Tigers defense wasn’t, returning seven starters off a group that was stingy and physical during the team’s successful 2014 run.
Thibodaux swapped defensive coordinators in the offseason, adding former Vandebilt coordinator Ashton Cagnolatti to replace outgoing coach Carey Melvin, who left to become the head coach at H.L. Bourgeois.
Cagnolatti has kept the train moving forward.
Even during the early-season struggles, the Tigers defense has played well – a group led by hybrid safety Blair Brooks and also Dwayne Coleman, Joey Guillot and Kailin Joseph.
He said when hired that he wanted to make Thibodaux known as a team that plays tough, hard defense.
“We have so much talent here,” Cagnolatti said. “It’s our job to get them in the right positions to make things difficult for the offense. We think we have the personnel in place to make that happen.”
Now the goal is to keep the train rolling against a brutally tough schedule.
Thibodaux doesn’t have any easy games coming in – a murderer’s row that is arguably the most difficult slate in all of Louisiana.
The Tigers will travel and face East St. John on Friday before facing upstarts Central Lafourche and H.L. Bourgeois on back-to-back weeks.
Thibodaux ends the season with three-straight battles. The Tigers go outside of district play in Week 8 and host St. Aug. From there, they close with Destrehan and Hahnville.
Dugas said the challenging slate is by design as a way to season the team before postseason play.
“We play a very tough schedule,” Dugas said. “There’s no doubt about it. But when you put yourself in that position, you get to the end of the season, and you’ve been battle tested in every area of the game, which makes you a better and more complete team.”
The Thibodaux High School football team struggled early In the 2015 season, losing their first two games. But since that time, the Tigers have been on a roll. Thibodaux soundly defeated South Lafourche two weeks ago before rolling past Terrebonne on Friday night. Coach Chris Dugas applauded his team’s ability to push past the adversity.
