BAY ST. LOUIS — The St. Stanislaus Rock-a-chaws (2-0) held the home team Bay High Tigers (0-2) at bay with a mixture of screen passes, quarterback keepers and a successful onside kick as the Rock-a-chaws rallied for 34 unanswered first-half points Friday to take a 34-7 lead at the break Friday night in the annual “Battle for the Crab Trap.
The Rock-a-chaws would hold off the Tigers, outscoring them 17-14 in the second half to give them a 51-21 win at J.D. McCullough Stadium.
The Rocks failed to pick up a first down on their initial possession, but they looked completely different on their following five possessions. They capped all five with a touchdown.
The Tigers scored the game’s first points on their first possession, but the Rocks’ defense kept them off the scoreboard for nearly 23 minutes as they denied them first downs. And the Rock-a-chaws’ offense sustained long. clock-consuming drives that kind of took the roar out of the Tigers.
“We did give up the touchdown early,” said Rock-a-chaws coach Tim Lala. “I was confident in our guys. We played really well last week. I came into this game confident because they did such a great job during the week.
“We were able to establish a bit of a lead going into halftime, and from there we continued to fight out a half. They came with the onside kick, and we were able to put a hand on the onside kick, touching it early, and we go in and put some more points on the board,and that kind of allowed us to put it away early.”
The Rock-a-chaws added a 43-yard Evan Noel field goal after their successful fielding of the onside kick to open the second half. Then they scored on a 25-yard Ian Rioz keeper to extend their lead to 44-14.
Chesley Rhodes closed out the Rock-a-chaws’ scoring on an 8-yard carry on fourth down on the first play of the fourth quarter.
The Rock-a-chaws’ first score of the night capped a 44-yard drive as Rioz connected with Ethan Galloway from 13 yards out. On their next possession, Rioz capped a 70-yard drive with a 23-yard keeper to give them a 14-7 lead.
Rioz made a couple of big plays on their next possession, first breaking away for 55 yards to the Tigers’ 7-yard line. He capped the drive with a 4-yard touchdown.
Their subsequent possession started at the Bay High 49-yard line. Rioz went to the air twice, hitting Galloway for gains of 8 and 15 yards.
Rhodes would close the drive with a 4-yard touchdown carry to give the
Rock-a-chaws a 27-7 lead after the PAT failed because of a mishandled snap. Sam Lejeune recovered a Bay High fumble on the following possession, and the Rock-a-chaws capitalized. Rioz kept for 11 yards, completed an 11-yard pass to Galloway and an 11-yarder to Levi Green for a touchdown.
Bay High scored with 20 seconds left in the first half as Xander Ladner connected with Benny Williams from 2 yards out to cut their deficit to 20 points.
Williams’ touchdown on a 15-yard reverse with about three minutes to play closed out the game’s scoring.
“Too many mistakes. We can’t get out of our own way,” said Bay High coach Jeremy Turcotte. “We’ve got to grow up and get past the self-inflicted wounds. Maybe we’ll figure it out, but we’re going to keep on plugging.”
St. Stanislaus travels to Moss Point next Friday and Bay High plays at Long Beach.
