St. Paul'€™s traveling to Hammond tomorrow in search of district victory

St. Paul’s Wolves (3-1, 0-1) get after it Thursday, heading up Interstate 12 to battle the Hammond High Tornadoes (0-2, 0-1). St. Paul’s, the defending District 7-5A champs, are focused on turning things around following last week’s disappointing, 17-0, district opening loss to the Mandeville Skippers at home.

St. Paul’s had Hammond’s number last year, dialing up a 42-24 victory. Hammond suffered a 36-0 loss to the Fontainebleau Bulldogs on the road last week.

“I think the key for us is that we played well enough defensively to win last week,” said St. Paul’s coach Ken Sears. “Our offense has to stop making penalties that are stalling drives. Sometimes taking one on the chin can be a positive thing if you learn from it. Hopefully, we learned some good lessons from last week’s loss against Mandeville.”

Sears said his club had a strong practice Monday.

“We’ll get refocused. It’s a long district race,” he said.

Sears said Hammond teams always have tremendous team speed.

“They have solid skill players who can hurt you. They have enough talent on the field to beat you,” Sears said.

St. Paul’s failed to find any consistency offensively last week, gaining only 125 yards, 74 yards on the ground and 51 through the air.

“We’ll have to play well on offense this week. Three out of the four weeks we haven’t played well on offense. We have to get a lot better in that area,” Sears added.

“We are making some adjustments to help improve that. We are going back to focusing on fundamentals. That’s kind of where it starts. We need to eliminate the penalties that have killed us. That is something we can control,” Sears added.

Sears said his club has to find a way to sustain drives. He said the Wolves’ offense can’t continue to put it all on the defense’s shoulders.

“We have a great defense but can’t continue to lean on them every game,” he said. “In the past, we have always been known as a team that could put together long drives and stay in sync. Right now, we are just out of sync offensively.”

Senior middle linebacker Jordan Bodenheimer turned in a strong defensive effort last week, notching nine solo tackles along with three assists.

Sophomore defensive tackle Mickey Johnson posted two sacks, three individual stops and two tackles for losses. Junior defensive end Houston Bates delivered a sack, two stops for losses, three individual tackles and an assist.

Senior linebacker Tyler Adams was in on five tackles, including two plays resulting in losses. Senior Greg Blasiar had five tackles with four solo stops.

Bodenheimer said the Wolves have to go out and play to their full potential on both sides of the ball.

“We have to put the Mandeville game behind us. We are looking at this week’s game against Hammond as a fresh start,” Bodenheimer said. “Hammond has a lot of team speed. Their fullback (Betts) runs really hard. Our defensive line has been strong. They have to take control of the game. Defensively, we have to contain Hammond’s team speed, trying to keep everything inside. We need to wrap up, and not have any missed tackles.”

Wolves’ senior offensive guard Chris Gensler said his team needs to regain its focus.

“It was a hard loss,” Gensler said. “Things start with the offensive line. If we can go about our business being physical, we will move the ball. Our offensive line has to be able to make the blocks so we can pound the ball inside. Once our passing game gets to what I know it can be, I think we will be able to run the ball consistently, like we used to.”

Hammond head coach Rusty Barrilleaux is in his third season with HHS.

St. Paul’s defense is really physical, and tough up front. They have some really good linemen, especially No. 99 (Mickey Johnson) and No. 94 (Houston Bates),” Barrilleaux said.

Barrilleaux said his offensive line would have to be able to meet them at the point of attack. “We can’t let them get up the field. They usually get pretty good penetration.”

Barrilleaux said his club got a chance to play some of its younger players last week in the district opener, which gave them valuable game time experience.

He said his sophomore starting quarterback Trevor Ragan (5-10, 157) continues to show improvement. He went 6-of-17 with 37 yards and one interception. Barrilleaux said junior fullback Justin Betts (5-10, 216) ran hard against Fontainebleau. He picked up 75 yards on a run in the fourth quarter, moving the ball down to the 13-yard line. Barrilleaux said there weren’t many positives to take from the Fontainebleau loss.

“We’re continuing to tell our players to give great effort. They have to be disciplined players,” he said.