St. Tammany News

Mandeville’s charted course in the Louisiana High School Athletic Association football playoffs veered off course Friday night as the Higgins Hurricanes became a tidal wave typhooning the Skippers 44-8.

Higgins (9-2), the No. 10 seed, advances hosting No. 2 seed Destrehan in the quarterfinal round. Destrehan topped Ruston 17-10 to advance.

Higgins' senior quarterback Edward Bernard (1) is brought down by Mandeville'€™s Jenson Yanosky (4) and Kody Keowen (30) during Friday'€™s LHSAA regional round playoff game at Skipper Stadium. Bernard rushed for 279 yards and three TDs to spark the Hurricanes past the Skippers to advance to the quarterfinals. (Photo by Mike McCall)

The Mandeville faithful barely had time to get in their seats after the opening kickoff when senior quarterback Edward Bernard scampered 75-yards on a quarterback keeper around right end, cruising into the end zone. He topped it off converting on a two-point attempt to make it 8-0 with only 21 ticks off the clock.

Bernard was a one-man wrecking crew as he amassed 279 yards on 22 carries with three rushing touchdowns on runs of 75, 58 and 20 yards as he operated the Hurricanes’ option offense nearly to perfection. Bernard only attempted one pass and that came on a two-point try, which fell incomplete.

“We just came out and played our game,” Bernard said. He described his 75-yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage.

“The defense came down to stop the dive on Nolan (Lebouef). I saw the hole so I just took it. It happened to be open for me. I’m happy with my 0-line. We are getting better every week,” Bernard added.

Higgins’ junior fullback Nolan Lebouef also did damage grinding out 119 yards on 24 carries with two TDs, covering 27 and one yard. The one-two combination of Bernard and Lebouef proved unstoppable, pounding the ball at the usually solid Mandeville defense, which was averaging just 9.7 points per game with four shutouts entering the contest.

Higgins’ head coach Wayne Meyers in his 13th season with the Hurricanes said when his club doesn’t put the ball on the ground good things happen.

Meyers praised the play of his senior quarterback (Bernard) along with his junior fullback (Lebouef).

“He has really come around the last three weeks for us. I hope he can keep playing well. When you run the option, your two main people are the quarterback and the fullback. We beat a good Mandeville football team. We do what we do with our size up front,” Meyers said.

Mandeville coach Guy LeCompte described Higgins as a very good football team.

“You can’t take anything away from them. They beat us in all phases of the game. They executed well. They had a good game plan on both sides of the ball,” LeCompte said.

Following a first possession punt, Mandeville was back in business as Chris Houlemard recovered a muffed punt. The Skippers set up shot at the Hurricanes’ 21 with 8:44 left in the first quarter with an opportunity to get on the board. The Skippers’ starting senior quarterback Andy Bertoniere hit John Wenzel, who also saw time at quarterback, with an eight-yard pass. Bertoniere rushed for five yards on second down to give the Skippers first-and-goal at the eight. After Bertoniere hit Brandon Weeden on a four-yard toss, he misfired on his next two attempts. On fourth-and-goal from the four Mandeville decided to try a 21-yard field goal, but Matt Dombrowski’s attempt sailed wide right.

Higgins then drove 80 yards in just seven plays with Lebouef taking it in from 27 yards out with 4:12 left in the opening quarter. The two-point attempt was no good so it remained 14-0.

MHS senior running back Will Bunns, who rushed for 532 yards in his last three games, returned the kickoff 56 yards to the Higgins’ 39. Bertoniere hit Michael Garrido for 10 yards, but following a five-yard penalty he tossed four straight incompletions with the Hurricanes taking over on downs at their 34 with 2:53 left in the quarter.

Higgins moved the ball 76-yards on 15-plays consuming 7:58 off the clock with Lebouef pushing the ball in from the one with 6:55 left in the first half. Bernard was successful on the two-point try to push the lead to 22-0.

Following a MHS three-and-out, Higgins scored two plays later on a 58-yard jaunt by Bernard to push the score to 28-0. Bernard’s two-point pass attempt fell incomplete. The half ended with Higgins leading by the 28-point margin.

With a little over five minutes left in the third quarter, MHS’ Austin Storms recovered a Bernard fumble at the Skippers’ 19. With Wenzel in at quarterback, he dropped back to pass and was intercepted by Higgins’ De’Shawn White, who returned the ball 25 yards for a score. Lebouef tallied a successful two-point try to increase the margin to 36-0.

Higgins tacked on a safety and finished off its scoring with Bernard taking it in from 20 yards out with 3:40 remaining. The only point after kick failed when the snap was mishandled.

Mandeville avoided the shutout when Bertoniere found Weeden on a 20-yard pass as time expired. Bertoniere hit Weeden for the two-point conversion to close out the game at 44-8, ending the Skippers’ season.

Bertoniere finished 9-of-25 for 91 yards with an interception. He ended his senior season hitting on 103-of-195 attempts for 1,486 yards with 10 touchdowns and nine interceptions. Bunns closed out his career, picking up 76 hard earned yards on 17 carries. He finished off the season as the Skippers’ leading rusher with 738 yards on 129 carries, averaging 5.7 yards per carry with six rushing TDs and three receiving. Weeden caught three passes for 42 yards, giving him 35 catches for 531 yards with seven touchdowns, tops in each of the three categories for the Skippers.