John Ehret holds on to defeat East St. John in Jamboree, 13-8

MARRERO – For one side, it was a mixed bag while for the other, it was an encouraging performance in a defeat.

Highly regarded and multi-talented John Ehret held on to defeat upstart East St. John 13-8 in the Ehret Jamboree at Hoss Memtsas Stadium Thursday night.

It was the unofficial debut for a pair of new head coaches in Marcus Scott at John Ehret and Brandon Brown at East St. John.

The Patriots had a mix of good and bad throughout.

The good came in the form of junior running back Damond Leonard, some positive plays by senior quarterback Travis Mumphrey and a huge pass rush which produced four sacks.

Leonard rushed five times for 55 yards and a touchdown. The Patriots are seeking a replacement for Terrell “Smoke” Brown, who is now at Helen Cox and Leonard took a big step forward with his performance.

Mumphrey completed 7-of-14 passes for 95 yards and rushed nine times for 27 yards and a touchdown.

Defensively, junior Patrick Jenkins had a pair of sacks while senior Earl Barquet and senior Eldridge Walker each added a sack for John Ehret. Senior Deron Coleman played both ways and played well. He caught four passes for 44 yards.

The Wildcats were led by senior quarterback Dasmain “Deuce” Crosby, who rushed 14 times for 56 yards and a touchdown and completed 8-of-18 passes for 50 yards. Hoxie Brown had three catches for 29 yards while Reginald Foster, Jr. had 18 yards on five carries.

The Patriots were plagues by penalties, committing seven for 75 yards. That included three personal foul penalties which sustained drives for East St. John

Ehret jumped on top on their first series, driving 63 yards in seven plays with Leonard scoring on an 11-yard run. The extra point failed and it was 6-0 with 6:06 to play in the first half.

The Patriots took the second half kickoff and drove 55 yards in just four plays to expand lead to 13-0, scoring on a nine-yard run by Mumphrey. Javier Guevara added the extra point.

The momentum clearly shifted to East St. John the rest of the way.

The Wildcats drove 66 yards in nine plays with Crosby scoring on a four-yard run to cut the deficit to 13-6 with 7:49 to play in the game. The two-point conversion failed. The drive was aided by a pair of personal fouls against Ehret.

The Patriots went nowhere on their next possession and on fourth down, the snap to the punter sailed way over his head and into the end zone for a safety to make it 13-8 with 6:45 to play.

East St. John had two more chances.

The Wildcats reached the Ehret 28-yard line but came up short on a fourth-down run.

Then, Ehret reserve quarterback Theodore Calloway was intercepted by Shawn Sterling at the Patriot 29-yard line with 53 seconds remaining.

Crosby rushed for a first-down to the 16-yard line and Foster, Jr. ran two yards to the 14 but three consecutive incomplete passes followed and Ehret held on for the win.

“I’m very, very pleased with the way our guys came out and competed,” Brown said. “I told my team before we came out that we were playing one of the top teams in the state, bar none. I was proud of the way we finished the game. I think we started a little slow, made some mistakes, didn’t tackle well, didn’t control the line-of-scrimmage on offense. All in all, we did well. We have some things to clean up. We were better in the second half. Crosby is going to be a miracle worker for us.”

Scott saw some good things in his team’s performance.

“We have to be consistent and if we can eliminate the mistakes, which we will, we will be fine,” Scott said. “Whenever you give a solid program like East St. John momentum, they’re going to take advantage of it. Damon (Leonard) works hard, he doesn’t say a whole lot, he just comes to work every day and we’re fortunate to have him.”

Both teams open their season next Friday night. Ehret faces a tough task at perennial power West Monroe at 7 p.m.

“It’s going to be tough, but it’s supposed to be,” Scott said. “We need to play good competition in order to gain momentum. We’re looking forward to it. We know it’s going to be tough but we are going to go out and compete.”

East St. John will host Plaquemine at 7 p.m.

“Plaquemine is going to be a real tough opponent but all in all, I think we needed to get punched in the mouth tonight,” Brown said. “I think it woke our guys up.”

STATS

Final
John Ehret 6 7 13
East St. John 0 8 13

First Downs
ESJ 11
Ehret 8

Turnovers
ESJ 0
Ehret 1

Penalties
ESJ 5 for 34 yards
Ehret 7 for 75 yards

Sacks
ESJ 0
Ehret 4

Rushing Yards
ESJ 89
Ehret 72

Passing Yards
ESJ 50
Ehret 95

Total Yards
ESJ 139
Ehret 167