Slidell’s Tigers take on the winless Hammond Tornadoes tonight in a District 6-5A game at L.V. McGinty Stadium.

SHS (4-3, 3-2) comes into the game after beating Fontainebleau, 44-7. Last week, Hammond (0-6, 0-5) suffered a 34-0 loss to Mandeville. The Tigers have outscored their last two opponents by a combined 95-26. When the two teams met last year, Slidell used a big second half to collect a 30-0 victory. Slidell coach Artie Liuzza talked about the Tornadoes.

“Hammond has some talent. Their running back (Torian Weber) has good speed, and they are athletic,” Liuzza said. “Defensively, they can play you hard. Against Mandeville twice and St. Paul’s once, they had goal-line stands.”

Slidell quarterback Blake Forbis (12) picks up positive yardage with Fontainebleau'€™s Scott Korte (99) in pursuit. Forbis passed for 238 yards with four touchdowns and also ran for a score in last Friday night'€™s victory. (File Photo by Gwen Ladner)

Slidell’s spread offense is led by senior quarterback Blake Forbis, who has accounted for nine touchdowns over the last two weeks while passing for 406 yards. Six of the touchdowns have been through the air, and the other three were on the ground.

Last week Forbis was on fire, completing 16-of-20 passes for 238 yards and four touchdowns. He also showed his speed by running for 63 yards and a 27-yard tally.

His main target is Armand Williams. Last week, the two hooked up six times for 112 yards and three scores.

Hammond coach Rusty Barrilleaux said Slidell’s offense is tough to defend.

“They’ve got some studs on the outside. They’ve got a lot of speed and a guy that can get it to them. No. 7 (Williams) is some kind of good looking athlete,” Barrilleaux said.

Another one of Forbis’ weapons is Tyler Ziegler, whose touchdown reception last week gave the Tigers a 14-0 advantage.

Slidell rotates its running backs with juniors Zachary Johnson and Jaron Wiggins. In the FHS game, Johnson finished off the Tigers’ scoring with a 33-yard run.

Defensively, Hammond runs different sets, but bases out of the 4-2-5. In last week’s game, the Tornado defense had three goal-line stands against the Skippers. Offensively, the Tors’ running backs are Torian Weber and junior Justin Betts. The quarterback is Trevor Ragan.

Two weeks ago against Covington, the Tornadoes got great production from the two backs. Weber had a big game with 188 yards rushing and a touchdown. Betts ran for 91 yards and a score. SHS’ defense has come up big the last two weeks, holding their opponents to just 26 points. Last week, FHS had just 161 yards of total offense and 10 first downs.

Chris Tranchina had a good game for Slidell as he recovered a fumble and intercepted a pass.