St. Paul’s Wolves are home tonight taking on the Ponchatoula Green Wave at Hunter Stadium. St. Paul’s (5-2, 2-2) is coming off a 34-19 loss to Northshore. Last week, the Wolves were unable to recover after falling behind 20-0 in the first quarter on the road.

Ponchaoutla (3-3, 1-3) suffered a major setback getting trounced by Slidell 51-19. The Wolves won last year’s game edging the Green Wave 14-10.

St. Paul’s coach Ken Sears said his club had good practices all week.

St. Paul'€™s sophomore running back Stephon Smith (2) heads up field trying to outrun Northshore'€™s Chris Wade in last week'€™s district game played at Northshore. St. Paul'€™s is hosting the Ponchatoula Green Wave tonight at Hunter Stadium. (File Photo by James Elorriaga)

“I think our players have used last week’s loss to get refocused. Despite losing to Northshore, we felt like we played well offensively in the second half. We took care of the ball,” Sears said.

He said that would be the key this week against Ponchatoula to take care of the football and stay away from turnovers.

“We need to do the fundamental things right. Ponchatoula is a very good team just like everyone else in our district,” Sears added. “They defeated Northshore (19-18) so they are capable of beating anybody in the district. We will have to be a focused team. We can’t afford to have breakdowns in assignments.”

Sears said Ponchatoula can play good defense so he felt his club would have to mix things up offensively.

“We have to be able to balance the running game with some timely passing. We can’t focus on just one or the other. We want to be balanced to keep their defense guessing.”

Sears said at this point in the season his team is pretty banged up, and have been for the past two weeks.

Ponchatoula coach Mike Baiamonte said his team needs to stop turning the ball over.

“We have to find a way to eliminate the early mistakes. We need to play better at the start to stay in ballgames. In our last three losses, we have put the ball on the ground early,” Baiamonte said.

Ponchatoula suffered a bad snap on a punt attempt and also fumbled a kickoff return in the first half in last week’s loss to Slidell.

Baiamonte said his Green Wave needs to have a solid defensive game to stop St. Paul’s balanced offense.

“St. Paul’s still gives you a balanced offensive attack. They are more run oriented depending on what type of defense they are playing against. They also have a pretty solid passing game,” Baiamonte said. “We have to be able to get our defense off the field. We must do a better job of not allowing our opponents to convert on third down situations.”

Baiamonte said the season comes down to the three remaining district games with no margin for error.

Baiamonte said sophomore quarterback Eldrid Palmer (5-9, 165) continues to show improvement from week to week. Junior fullback Joseph Green (5-11, 220) is the Green Wave’s leading rusher. Senior running back Cody Gueldner (5-8, 200) joins him in the backfield.

Wolves’ coach Sears said his defense has to continue its strong play to stop the Ponchatoula running game.

“Their running back Green is an explosive runner. He is quick through the hole. Our defense will need to read the option, and make sure they wrap him up. Ponchatoula has some weapons on offense,” Sears said.

Senior middle linebacker Jordan Bodenheimer continues to bolster the St. Paul’s defense. Bodenheimer has recorded 52.5 tackles with 39 being solo stops tying him for the team lead in that category. Bodenheimer posted 10 tackles last week with a sack, a tackle for a loss and he broke up a pass. Senior defensive back Greg Blasiar is the Wolves’ second leading tackler with 48.5 stops.

He is tied with Bodenheimer for solo tackles with 39. Blasiar has an interception, caused a fumble, and has broken up two passes. Junior defensive end Houston Bates continues to make his presence felt pressuring the quarterback with a team-high 11 sacks. He also has 10 tackles for losses.

Bates has registered 46 tackles. Senior defensive back Beau Trist tops the Wolves with three interceptions. He has also broken up eight passes, while being in on 17 tackles.

Offensively, SPS sophomore quarterback Alec Duncan, has completed 51.4 percent of his passes, connecting on 35-of-68 attempts for 609 yards. Senior split end Patrick Huval tops the Wolves with 23 receptions for 474 yards, averaging 20.6 yards per catch.

The sophomore one-two-punch of running backs Stephon Smith and Mikhail Washington continue to lead the Wolves’ ground game. Smith has gained 380 yards with a team leading six touchdowns, while Washington has 375 yards and three TDs.