By David Folse II

Sports Editor

It’s how every senior wants to end his career.

For West St. John’s 14 seniors, they concluded one of the most successful four-year stints in school history with a dominating 46-2 win over St. Helena to capture the school’s second straight Class 2A title.

The win concludes a magical run for the Rams in which they won their final 10 games of the season after starting the year 2-2.

An excited head coach Laury Dupont was happy to see his seniors go out with yet another state championship.

“The first half we really didn’t play that well except for one big play rushing,” Dupont said. “The second half we improved and played well. We really controlled the line of scrimmage the second half and that ended up being the difference in the game.”

Senior Patrick Jackson rewrote the 2-A record books against the Hawks. The senior tailback set the record for yards rushing (263) and tied the record for rushing touchdowns (4) en route to being named the game’s MVP.

“He’s done it all year,” Dupont said of his senior tailback. “He’s made big plays all season, but you have to credit the offensive line too. He made a lot of great individual runs, but he also had a lot of holes to run through as well. That’s an important thing and he understands that.”

Senior middle linebacker Initius Howard, who finished the game as the leading tackler for the Rams, said the seniors wanted to finish their careers with a dominating effort.

“We just played really hard throughout the game,” Howard said. “We had a lot of mental mistakes ourselves, but I kept telling my teammates to just regroup and be ready. We know that we are a good team and just needed to play like it.

“When we go out there, we just have fun. Play with your teammates. If we make a mistake, we just come back into the huddle and forget about it and get ready for the next play.”

Dominating both sides of the line of scrimmage throughout the game, Jackson’s two-yard touchdown run late in the first quarter gave the Rams an 8-2 lead. Behind Jackson’s 263 yards on the ground and four touchdowns, West St. John would score 46 unanswered points to capture the title.

While the Rams’ rushing attack was racking up yardage on the ground, the West St. John defense was just as dominating. Holding St. Helena to only two first downs with one via penalty, the Hawks had only 67 total yards for the game and were forced into four turnovers.

State records continued to fall on the defensive side of the ball as the Rams gave up only two first downs, did not allow a rushing first down, and gave up only 67 total yards and only 1.7 yards per play.

“I was really surprised at how dominating our defensive was over them,” Dupont said. “I said after the game that we could have played them 10 more times and they scored wouldn’t have been like that.

“I think we just demoralized a good football team on a particular night. They had their opportunities in the beginning of the game. They could have had a touchdown on the team safety, but from then on we just stopped them in all aspects and controlled the game.”

Special teams went West St. John’s way as well. Howard had three punts for an average of over 35 yards, pinning the Hawks inside the 20 once. Another senior, Ray Bartholomew added a 57-yard punt return for a touchdown to put the game out of reach late in the third quarter.

“The punt return was a great call by the coach,” Dupont joked. “It wasn’t even our punt return team. What we did was just leave our defense on the field. That’s the best wall that we set up all year.”

Despite losing 14 seniors, the Rams will remain on the top teams in the state. 2005 however brings a significant change, as West St. John will move down to play in Class 1A for the next two seasons.

“These seniors have done something that no one else has done or will do for a long time around

here,” Dupont said. “That’s hard to do in the public school setting.

“Next year, we’re just going to play the cards that are dealt to us no matter what it is.”

Handing over the reigns of the program to the underclassmen, the Ram seniors are confident they will continue the winning tradition of West St. John.

“I think they can continue the tradition,” Howard said. “We have a lot of leadership coming back on next year’s squad. They were a big reason in why we are at where we are right now and I’m sure that it will continue.”

Sports Editor David Folse II can be reached at lobnews@bellsouth.net