By DAVID FOLSE II

Sports Editor

HAMMOND–Stop me if you have heard this one before Wildcat fans.

East St. John’s offense scores a ton of points and the Wildcats look great.

Ryan Perrilloux may be gone, but the Wildcat offense did not skip a beat Thursday night as they dominated the Hammond Tornadoes in a scrimmage.

“I was very impressed with the way we played,” East St. John Head Coach Larry Dauterive said. “We had a good defensive outing. They (Hammond) did not score one time on our first team defense. I think overall we scored 11 times and they only scored once. We scored twice on the second team and nine times on the first team.

“Johnny Thiel threw like nine touchdown passes, Ricky (Dixon) caught two touchdown passes Roy James caught two, and Louis Lee caught two. Ricky then came in and played quarterback and threw a couple of touchdown passes to Odell Rice and David Hampton. I don’t know, we might have scored 80 points Thursday night. We did well.”

Happy with the offensive output, the East St. John head coach was also pleased with his team’s performance on the other side of the ball.

“The main thing is that we played great defense,” Dauterive said. “They didn’t get close to our goal line the whole night.

“I am just happy with where we are right now. I think the kids feel good about themselves. Hammond is a solid team. They won eight games last year and they said that this year’s squad is going to be their best team. We did a nice number on them.”

Dauterive said while it was not the real thing, he is glad his team came out and played well.

“It may have only been a rehearsal, but it was sure better to come out and hit against somebody else,” Dauterive said. “The big thing is that I think we played better on defense.”

Coming away with no injuries during the scrimmage, Dauterive said he is looking forward to breaking down the game film.

“Once I can sit down and look at the film, I’ll be able to break down what we did well and what we need to improve on,” Dauterive said. “Everything really came out positive and we were able to play a lot of kids and I think we totally dominated the scrimmage.

“I think we are a better team than we were last year, because it is not all on one person on the offensive side of the ball. ”

Taking over the reigns of the high-powered offensive system for the first time against another opponent, Dauterive said Thiel excelled under center for the Wildcats Thursday night.

“Johnny threw the ball great,” Dauterive said. “He didn’t throw an interception. When you got out and throw six touchdowns and not a single interception in your first day, that is pretty good.

“He handled the option really well. He ran two in for touchdowns. He is a gamer. He just knows how to win. He is coming from a great program and I hope that he transcends that to us.”