McMain-Carver highlights Thursday night football schedule

Call them a dark horse.

While Edna Karr, Warren Easton and McDonogh 35 attract richly deserved attention for having outstanding teams and players in Class 4A, the Carver Rams lie beneath the surface of notoriety and attention. That is just fine with the Byron Addison’s Rams, at least for now, but they are on a mission to make a name for themselves.

“We don’t mind that for now,” Addison said. “We are trying to get where Karr, Easton and 35 are. They have great athletes and coaches. We’ve been grinding, working hard and we know if we continue to work hard and win, the attention will come and we will be mentioned in the same breath with those guys.”

The Rams downed always formidable Bastrop 20-12 before outscoring 5A Central Lafourche 52-44 on the road a week ago.

Senior quarterback Izea Hurst leads the way for Carver. He passed for four touchdowns and rushed for two in the win at Central Lafourche. He has fine receivers in junior Justin London, senior Keyon Clark and junior Corey Johnson.

“Izea is finally just starting to see what coaches have been telling him to do all along,” Hurst said. “He’s just going out and playing football. Our receiving corps has depth and they work hard together, work hard everyday. They work hard at practice. Izea justs spreads the ball around well.”

While Carver will be a solid favorite, the Rams cannot take McMain for granted.

“I don’t think we are in a position to take anyone lightly,” Addison said. “We still have so far to go to be the team we want to be. We have to come out and minimize our mistakes. We have a lot of young guys still learning the game. We are especially young on defense.”

After dropping their opener to talented Newman, the Mustangs rebounded with a solid 30-6 win over Lusher.

Senior Dentrell Quinn led the way in his first start at quarterback for Kevin Rousell. Matthew Payne is the top running back while Devin Stretchings is the leading receiver for McMain.

“It was a big win for a very young team that we have. We just need to keep it going. Everyone was focused. It is a short week with Thursday games. We have some momentum going. We improved a lot over week one. The kids have been very enthused this week.”

Roussel feels he has found a quarterback.

“Dentrell played quarterback at the playground level,” Roussel said. “Carver can really put up some points. They are throwing it all around. We just have to keep people in front of us and tackle them. They are a very good football team. I’m looking for a pretty good game.”

THURSDAY GAMES

New Orleans Area

Belle Chasse at Higgins, 6:30 p.m. at Hoss Memtsas Stadium

Ben Franklin vs. Haynes, 6:30 p.m. at Joe Yenni Stadium

KIPP Renaissance at Ascension Catholic, 7 p.m.

McMain vs. Carver, 7 p.m. at Joe Brown Stadium

Others

Bunkie at Buckeye

Comeaux at St. Martinville

Dunham at St. Michael

East Beauregard at Merryville

Haughton at Woodlawn (SH)

Huntington at Captain Shreve

Lafayette Christian at Franklin

Lake Arthur at Iota

North Vermilion at Ascension Episcopal

Northwest at West St. Mary

Oakdale at Oberlin

Richwood at Franklin Parish

Washington-Marion at Ville Platte