It’s hard to believe that the Mandeville Skippers have a better quarterback than Andy Bertoniere not the way he shredded Hammond’s pass defense on Friday.

Bertoniere, taking over after junior John Wenzel was injured in last week’s loss to Fontainebleau, was 19-for-23 passing for an even 400 yards and two touchdowns as the Skippers overpowered winless Hammond 34-0 Friday night in Tornado Alley.

Bertoniere, a senior, was nearly perfect in the first half 12-for-13 for 232 yards to hurl Mandeville (6-1, 4-1) to a 21-0 halftime lead. Then he connected with Chris Houlemard on an 82-yard touchdown play to open the second half, and the Skippers were on their way.

MHS'€™ Chris Houlemard (10) breaks into the clear thanks to a crushing block by Brandon Weeden (6) to score on an 82-yard pass from Andy Bertoniere early in the second half in Friday night'€™s district game against the Hammond Tornadoes. (Photo by John Lenz/Hammond Daily Star)

“He got a lot more reps in practice and he came in a lot more confident this week,” Mandeville coach Guy LeCompte said. “He did an excellent job and I think the whole team effort was good. The offensive line gave him the protection he needed to make those throws, and the receivers made the grabs. I think it was a group effort.”

It was a satisfying bounce-back for the Skippers, who stayed on track for the District 6-5A title as they face Northshore and Covington to close the season. After losing to Fontainebleau 19-16 in overtime last week, LeCompte is taking nothing for granted.

“You can’t take anyone in this league lightly,” LeCompte said. “You can’t make sense of it, rhyme or reason why one team blows another one out. You can’t take anyone lightly so the district championship hinges on those last two games.”

The play that burned the Tors (0-6, 0-5) all night was the deep slant, with big yardage after the catch.

“He did a great job,” Tors coach Rusty Barrilleaux said of Bertoniere. “Every time they needed something, they went to that (slant), and we just couldn’t get anybody over there to stop it. He ran a good route, he threw it well, we were in position almost every time, but didn’t make a play.”

The bright spot for Hammond was a defense that mounted three goal-line stands to hold Mandeville out inside the Tors’ five yard line.

“That was great. They stood up and did what they had to do,” said Barrilleaux, whose team held the Skippers to 28 net rushing yards on 22 attempts. “Overall, we shut down the run. It was third-and-long that killed us.”

Hammond held Mandeville out on four downs from the Tors’ 9 on the Skippers’ first possession, but then Mandeville went 55 yards on five plays to get on the board. Bertoniere hit Brandon Weeden for 32 yards to set up a 2-yard touchdown run by William Bunns to break the scoreless tie with under a minute left in the first period.

The Tors had their best drive of the first half, highlighted by a successful fake punt, before Mandeville stiffened at its own 35 and forced a punt.

The Skippers then scored in two plays on Bertoniere’s 16-yard pass to Bunns, then that slant route to Houlemard for 63 yards and the score.

Matt Dombrowski’s second PAT made it 14-0 with 6:24 left in the second quarter.

And the Skippers made it 21-0 with a drive that featured two more big plays from Bertoniere-to-Elijah Levee for 49 yards and Bertoniere-to-Michael Garrido for 27 yards.

Kody Keowen took it in from the 2 with 54 seconds left to make it 21-0 at the break.

Mandeville would go on to finish with three 100-yard games by receivers Houlemard with two catches for 145 yards and two TDs, plus Weeden (5-104) and Levee (8-100). That would be enough for a Mandeville defense, which held the Tors’ bread-and-butter running game to 105 yards, led by Torian Weber’s 72 yards on 19 carries.

“Last year, that was the defense of all defenses, but (this year) they’re close,” Barrilleaux said of the Skippers’ defense. “They’re filling those gaps, they flowed hard and they played well down the line of scrimmage.

They flowed so well they cut down the outside stuff and they penetrated on the leads. And it hurts us not being able to throw the ball well.”

Hammond’s defense twice stopped Mandeville drives inside the Tors’ 10 in the second half, and Mandeville’s final points came after the second one, when a Skipper popped a fumble away from Justin Betts and Michael Crain won a scramble for the loose ball in the end zone with 1:45 remaining to complete the scoring.

Mandeville is at home hosting Northshore as the two district leaders battle it out to remain on top. Hammond travels to Slidell to take on the Tigers.