Breaux Bridge’s Kelby Hypolite (1) and the Tigers are catching fire late in the season.
Breaux Bridge’s Kelby Hypolite (1) and the Tigers are catching fire late in the season.
After scoring 86 points in its first six games, the Breaux Bridge offense erupted for 84 points over the past two weeks.
Quarterback Kelby Hypolite accounted for 194 yards of total offense and three touchdowns in the first half of the Tigers’ 42-6 win over Beau Chene last week.
In the Tigers’ 42-20 Week 7 win over Kinder, Hypolite rushed 16 times for 270 yards with three scores while completing 13 of 21 passes for 165 yards and a TD.
“He’s doing a tremendous job,” coach Zach Lochard said of the junior. “I really feel that we could put him just about anywhere on the field. He’s a Swiss Army knife who has done a great job at the helm of our offense.”
Lochard attributed his offense’s success to coordinator Tyrell Fenroy as well as Hypolite, who spends so much in film study that his coach referred to him as “overly prepared.”
“Coach Fenroy has done a tremendous job of putting players in the right positions to be successful,” Lochard said.
On Friday, the Tigers (4-4, 1-1 District 5-4A) host Opelousas (7-1, 2-0), which defeated Cecilia 21-16 last week.
“Everybody is excited and ready to put in some great work so we can stay in the hunt to be district champions,” Lochard said. “Opelousas is very large on both sides of the ball. They utilize their personnel for a heavy run set and are very explosive in the passing game, too.
“We’re trying to put our best game plan together, and I know the kids are up to the challenge.”
The biggest story surrounding Opelousas Catholic has been the Vikings’ defense, which returned nine starters from last year.
The Vikings had a rough start, losing three of their first four games and allowing 121 points in the three losses.
Heading into Friday’s District 6-1A home game against Sacred Heart (6-2, 2-1), however, the Vikings have won four straight and have allowed only eight points in that span.
The defense, which also posted a shutout in Week 3, has fared well against every offensive style from Catholic-Pointe Coupee’s option attack to North Central’s spread.
“The kids have done a good job of playing hard and understanding the scheme,” coach Thomas David said. “We returned a good number of defenders, but we had to put some kids in different spots this year.”
Jordan Luna, a returning starter at free safety, moved to linebacker, and returning outside linebacker Markaas Daughtery moved to safety.
Defensive backs Baylin Ford and Christian Brown, who is also an offensive standout, both intercepted passes in last week’s 66-0 win over North Central. Among the front seven, end Kade Bidstrup and linebackers Dawson Stelly and John Michael Jarrell have made more than their share of plays.
Opelousas Catholic (5-3, 3-0) has dominated its series with Sacred Heart over the past several years, including last year’s 14-6 win.
“It should be pretty evenly matched talent-wise,” David said. “We expect a physical battle for four quarters. They’ve played us very tough the last three times.”
For the first time since Week 1, Ascension Episcopal is at full strength leading into Thursday’s District 8-2A home game against Delcambre (5-3, 1-2).
The Blue Gators (3-5, 2-1) are locked in a four-way tie for first place in district with Franklin (3-5, 2-1), Catholic-New Iberia (3-5, 2-1) and Loreauville (4-4, 2-1).
“I felt like if we ever got healthy again, we’d play good football again,” said coach Stephen Hearen, whose team won 24-0 at Loreauville last week.
“We came out with a lot of energy last week. I think we controlled things up front on offense and defense. Everything started with our run defense.”
The defense limited Loreauville running back Evan Simon to his lowest output of the season (16 carries for 57 yards), and quarterback Cade Dardar rushed for all three of the Blue Gators’ touchdowns.
“No. 22 (Simon) was the best running back we had seen to this point,” Hearen said. “He had run for a lot of yards after contact against Franklin so we knew what we needed to do. The issue was whether or not we could do it.”
Hearen said that the 6-foot-1, 195-pound Dardar, who scored on runs of 2, 3 and 4 yards, is tough to bring down when he carries the football.
“Cade is a lot bigger than people realize,” he said. “He’s fast and hard to tackle when he’s running downhill.”
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