Undefeated East Iberville overpowers Varnado

In a slow-paced game in St. Gabriel on Friday night, one riddled with penalties, turnovers, and even a brief power outage that called for the scoreboard to be reset the Tigers won 22-12 after a late score to put it away.

The East Iberville Tigers 7-1A (3-0, 0-0) faced the visiting Varnado Wildcats 9-2A (1-2, 0-0), who came from east Louisiana in a little over a two hour drive.

East Iberville struck first with a touchdown that took a significant time to put together. But Varnado answered quickly with a 49-yard kickoff return, resulting in a score.

The Tigers were up 14-6 after one quarter. A defensive stand from both teams made it 14-6 at halftime. The Wildcats appeared frustrated with the calls during the third quarter, both the players and coaches. A Varnado player was heard screaming about it at one point as he walked off the field.

"We had like 30 penalties," Jamie Davis, Varnado's defensive coordinator said. "They had five. The penalties were very lopsided. We got bad calls all night, but that's football. We're on the road and we understand that."

The actual numbers weren't quite that bad, but it was clearly East Iberville's game to lose. And they tried, it seemed, turning the ball over twice in the redzone. However, defense took a stand. With 5:37 left to play in the game, a three-yard run put the game out of reach.

Tigers' lineman Justin Hollins was a difference maker on defense. The senior came off the field in pain at one point to be evaluated. He returned to the game to make more than one outstanding tackle, one in particular that he rose from and celebrated.

"We've accumulated some injuries," Head Coach Ron LeJeune said. "We've got both guards out. One didn't play tonight, and now the other one's hurt. And we've got one of our wingbacks down, too.

"We've got to try to get through next week and get some of these guys back. Because we've got a bye week after next week.

"[Varnado] is a very good defensive team. They're very fast. So I was worried about that all week.

"We just couldn't pop anything. We had a couple of turnovers on the four-yard-line. I think we got a real good shot. I think we got a shot to win every game. We'll see," he said.

"We played a bend, but don't break defense," Davis said. "We came up with a lot of turnovers. Offensively we were kind of a little slow to get started. Only thing we can do is go back home, regroup and get ready for next week."

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