Sacred Heart defends home turf to down Ville Platte, 20-7

For the second year in a row, rivals Sacred Heart of Ville Platte and Ville Platte High School met on the gridiron Friday night in the 2018 season opener.

On Friday night at Sacred Heart Soileau/Landry Field, the 15th edition of a game that has become known as The Tee Cotton Bowl was what Ville Platte hoped would be a revenge game for a 40-19 loss on their home field last year. Sacred Heart had other plans.

The Bulldogs hung tough but the host Trojans defended their Ville Platte City Championship with a 20-7.

“It was a hard fought battle and even more so when you play your city rivals,” Sacred Heart Coach Josh Harper. “Ville Plattle came looking for payback and we wore them out with our plays.”

Sacred Heart got on the board first when Alec Gotro found the end zone from 4 yards out early in the first quarter with 9:28 to play. Wesley Launey, who is both the quarterback and kicker for the Trojans, missed the PAT to leave the score at 6-0.

Ville Platte had an answer for Sacred Heart early in the second quarter. Tyler Jones ran for a 30 yard score and Brandon Veazie made his extra point try, giving the Bulldogs a 7-6 lead

The Trojans took the lead in the locker room when Launey capped a drive with 2:12 to go before the half on a two yard touchdown and kicked the point-after to make it 13-7 in favor of Sacred Heart.

The game was a battle to the end as rain made field conditions a little slippery. Both teams were in a a scoring drought until 41 seconds to go in the game when Gotro’s nine-yard touchdown iced the game for Sacred Heart.

“The game was a battle and until we had that last drive and scored it was still anyone’s game,” Harper noted. “Our key to victory I feel was our conditioning during the summer to get our players ready for the season and we also had several returning players step up their game tonight.”

Sacred Heart will next host St. Edmond, also 1-0 on the season after defeating Hanson Memorial, 45-12. Ville Platte will host another Evangeline Parish school Pine Prairie, another school looking for their first win after a loss to Tioga, 34-6.

Game Notes

The Tee Cotton Bowl has been hotly and closely contested overall but Sacred Heart now holds a 9-6 edge over Ville Platte.

The pregame coin toss Was conducted by the Bishop of Lafayette, the Most Reverend J. Douglas Deshotel, D.D.

There was five inductees into the Tee Cotton Bowl Hall of fame honored during the game: Sammy Fontenot, Hansoni Holland, Nick Colligan, Jerry Joseph, and coach Dutton Wall, who coached at both schools with a stop at Welsh along the way.

Both teams gathered after the game for a prayer at midfield with fans of both sides surrounding the players.