Ascension Episcopal slips past West St. Mary in overtime, 20-14

YOUNGSVILLE — Chalk one up for the defense.

Ascension Episcopal’s offense was held to one first down and 19 total yards by a big and motivated West St. Mary defense in Friday night’s second half, but it was the host Blue Gators that had the biggest defensive stops at the end of their District 7-2A contest.

The last of those came in overtime, when AES stopped the Wolfpack three straight plays inside the 4-yard-line to wrap up a second-half shutout that defensive coordinator Scott McCullough had demanded from his unit at halftime.

“I told the defense we can’t let them score again or we lose,” McCullough said, “so that was huge.”

Two plays after that overtime stop, Blue Gator senior Leo Franques found a gap up the middle and powered into the end zone for a nine-yard score – his longest run among 25 carries – that provided a pulsating 20-14 victory.

The win wrapped up second place in the district for Ascension (8-2, 5-1), and more importantly it all but assured a home game in next Friday’s opening round of the Division III playoffs. The Gators entered the final week ranked eighth in the power ratings, with the top eight teams earning host spots in the bracket that will be announced Sunday.

That win didn’t look promising when the Wolfpack (4-6, 4-2) held a 14-7 lead and twice had the ball in Gator territory in the final 15 minutes. But West St. Mary’s nine second-half possessions netted no points.

“The defense came through all night,” said Ascension Episcopal coach Matt Desormeaux. “They (West St. Mary) had one big play on offense for their first touchdown, and that’s about all they got. I can’t say enough good things about the way the defense played tonight. They battled their butts off, didn’t hold back and didn’t keep anything in the tank.”

That unit also took advantage of a glaring weakness in West St. Mary’s punting game. The Wolfpack went into punt formation six times in the game and only got two punts off, with two bad snaps resulting in turnovers on downs and the final two attempts both blocked by the Gator rush unit.

The second of those block came with only 5:38 left and gave Ascension possession at the Wolfpack 6, and three plays later Franques scored his second touchdown of the game on a four-yard burst with 4:11 left. Cole Simon skied the extra point, but it cleared the crossbar with a couple of yards to spare to tie the game at 14.

“We knew we had a pretty good chance to block a punt or two from watching them on film,” Desormeaux said. “We went out and forced bad kicks four or five different times. That was a huge factor. It kept us in good field position all night and kept them backed up, and that helped our defense out and helped our offense try to get a score in.”

The offense needed all the help it could get against a strong Wolfpack defense. The Gators had 12 different possessions that ended in West St. Mary territory and managed only the two scores. Those tallies came almost 39 clock minutes apart, with Franques going seven yards for an early 7-0 lead just over four minutes into the game.

That was set up by a bad punt snap that gave the Gators possession at the Wolfpack 7, but on the ensuing possession West St. Mary quarterback Taylun Druilhet had three of his seven total completions. He found Daylon Richards with the third on those on a 45-yard hitch pass for a score, and the two also linked on a two-point conversion for an 8-7 lead with 5:12 left in the first quarter.

Not long after that, on the second play of the second quarter, a bobbled Gator option turned into a defensive score, when Wolfpack linebacker Kyjuan Biggles picked up a fumble and ran 37 yards for a touchdown that made it 14-7.

It stayed that way for the next 21 possessions in the turnover-filled game, before Ascension’s Alexandre Partimbene blocked Druilhet’s punt deep in Wolfpack territory halfway through the final quarter to set up the tying touchdown.

“We couldn’t play them even on defense since they were so much bigger than us and they have great athletes,” McCullough said. We just played so hard, and when you play that hard, you can cover up the mistakes you make. We tried to put a lot of pressure on them.”

West St. Mary also came with the pressure, forcing Gator quarterback Simon to miss on his last 17 pass attempts in a 2-for-19, 17-yard passing night. But the Ascension defense forced four turnovers on top of the punt-block plays.

All of that set up the final overtime possession, with West St. Mary coming up short on its possession from the 10-yard line. On second down of the Gators’ OT possession, Franques had a message for the offensive line.

“I told them don’t block for me, block for the guys on the sideline, block for the guys on the scout team,” he said. “Don’t block for me, block for them.”

Ascension Episcopal 20, West St. Mary 14 (OT)

WSM     8              6              0              0              0              —             14

AES        7             0              0              7              6              —             20

First Quarter

AES – Leo Franques 7 run (Cole Simon kick)

WSM – Daylon Richards 45 pass from Taylun Druilhet (Richards pass from Druilhet)

Second Quarter

WSM – Kyjuan Biggles 37 fumble return (pass failed)

Fourth Quarter

AES – Franques 4 run (Simon kick)

Overtime

AES – Franques 9 run

TEAM STATISTICS           WSM     AES

First Downs                          9             8

Rushing Yards                    -7            83

Passing Yards                     150         17

Total Yards                         143         100

Comp-Att-Int                     7-26-3   2-19-1

Punts                                4-13.3    5-35.2

Fumbles-lost                      5-1          3-2

Penalties-yards                 11-60     3-40

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING – WSM: Desmon Washington 19-62, Dondre Johnson 1-minus 3, Demondric Pierre 3-minus 3, Ray Johnson 5-minus 10, Taylun Druilhet 5-minus 14, team 5-minus 39. AES: Leo Franques 25-61 3 TD, Jhalen Brown 11-24, Cole Simon 1-8, Andrew Stolzenthaler 3-7, Seth Kerstetter 2-0, team 2-minus 17.

PASSING – WSM: Druilhet 7-25-2, 150 yds., 1 TD, Dondre Johnson 1-0-1. AES: Simon 2-19-1, 17 yds.

RECEIVING – WSM: Daylon Richards 4-109 1 TD, Dondre Johnson 2-28, Tristian Harris 1-13. AES: Willie Kerstetter 2-17.

Records: WSM 4-6, 4-2; AES 8-2, 5-1. Next: Playoffs first round.