Belle Chasse stuffs Shaw for first win of season

A pair of teams struggling to find offense collided Saturday afternoon in Harvey and one side found enough while the other is still lost on that side of the football.

Belle Chasse ran the ball effectively and totally shut down Shaw in a 16-0 victory at Hoss Memtsas Stadium in a game heard on WGSO 990 AM.

The Cardinals held Shaw to just two first downs and 27 total yards, including minus five yards rushing. The young Shaw offense sputtered throughout, botching seven shotgun snaps.

“We work hard on our snaps and securing the snaps every day,” Shaw head coach Tommy Connors said. “We will continue to do so to get it right. Some were bad snaps, some were mishandled. You cannot have that. Going in, I told the team it is going to be the team that makes the fewest mistakes,” Connors said. “We made the mistakes. We knew it was going to be a physical game. I think we were ready for that but we didn’t execute and we didn’t handle game pressure well enough to expect to win.”

Belle Chasse dominated the first half, controlling the football with 36 snaps to just 15 for Shaw. The Eagles defense bent but did not break until the final minute of the first half. The Cardinals drove 65 yards in 16 plays, taking 6:20 off the clock with Cameron Vidtor scoring on an eight-yard run to make it 7-0 with 32 seconds to play in the half. Belle Chasse forced a pair of turnovers in the half and totaled 144 yards, all rushing. The Cardinals finished with 214 yards rushing, recorded four sacks and came up with three turnovers.

The second half was more of the same as Belle Chasse held Shaw without a first down. The Cardinals defense added to the lead when Michael Joseph and Brendon Groves combined on a sack of Chris Dufrene in the end zone for a safety to make it 9-0 with 4:18 to play in the third quarter.

Belle Chasse wrapped up the scoring, driving 29 yards in six plays with Retray Gaines scoring on a six-yard run with 36 seconds left. The Cardinals held Shaw to just 30 total yards, including minus five yards rushing.

Cardinals head coach Stephen Meyers used six different rushers. Holden DeJean led the Cardinals with 19 carries for 56 yards.

“The defense played really good and our offense was improved over a week ago,” Meyers said. “The defense stepped up all afternoon. We had just one turnover compared to eight last week. We just have to keep working and keep getting better. We used six different people to carry the ball. We lost a quarterback in the summer so we have to rely on our running game and grind it out, spreading the ball around.”

The Cardinals have a short week, returning to action next Thursday at Hoss Memtsas Stadium against Higgins while the Eagles travel to Houma to take on Vandebilt Catholic next Friday night.

“This is the first time in 28 years I’ve coached a team that plays five days after a previous game,” Meyers said. “ It will be two good days of practice followed by short days. It was a physical game today so we need to get ourselves back together. I know Higgins sat some kids this past week and they will have everyone back. We will have to be ready to play.”

The Eagles have not scored in their first two games.

“We will go back to work and look for a way to clean things up, get some people moved up front and find a way to make plays,” Connors said.

Final

AS   0    0    0    0   — 0

BC   0    7    2    7  — 16

Scoring

2nd Qtr.

BC—Cameron Vidtor, 8 yard run (Tyler Andrews kick)

3^rd Qtr.

BC—Chris Dufrene, sacked by Michael Joseph and Brendon Groves in end zone for safety

4^th Qtr.

BC—Retray Gaines, 6 yard run (Tyler Andrews kick)

Statistics

First Downs

BC  13

Shaw 2

Turnovers

BC  1

Shaw  3

Sacks

BC  4

Shaw  0

Penalties

BC   3 for 45 yards

Shaw  5 for 25 yards

Rushing Yards

BC  214

Shaw  -5

Passing Yards

BC  1

Shaw  32

Total Yards

BC  215

Shaw  27

BC Rushing

Holden DeJean 19 carries for 56 yards, Shawn Thompson  8 carries for 39 yards, Retray gaines, 7 carries for 39 yards, 1 TD, Jordan Mariana, 15 carries for 37 yards, Matt Barthelemy 6 carries for 22 yards, C.J. Vidtor 6 carries for 21 yards, 1 TD

BC Passing

Jordan Mariana  1-for-6, 1 yard, 1 INT

BC Receiving

C.J. Vidtor, 1 catch, 1 yard

Shaw Rushing

D’Quan Charles  9 carries for 11 yards, Chris Dufrene, 8 carries for -16 yards, Richon Porter, 1 carry for 0 yards

Shaw Passing

Chris Dufrene  7-of-15 for 32 yards, 1 INT

Shaw Receiving

Lonzell McCoy 3 catches for 23 yards, Richon Porter 1 catch for 5 yards, Luke Pounds 1 catch for 4 yards, D’Quan Charles 1 catch for 3 yards, Jamon Toney 1 catch for -3 yards