By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

BOUTTE – Though St. Augustine entered Friday night’s game with Hahnville sporting a winless record, Hahnville coach Lou Valdin wasn’t fooled.

Leonard Fournette was back for the Purple Knights, he said. And the sensational freshman tailback, he expected, would see the most action he’s had this year since returning from a preseason injury.

“He’s freaking Godzilla,” Valdin had said.

And Godzilla was indeed a factor. Fournette accounted four four touchdowns and rushed for 208 yards as St. Augustine secured its first win of the season, 40-21 over Hahnville.

St. Augustine trailed, 21-14, at halftime. But the Knights forced and recovered three Tiger fumbles in the second half and allowed no more points to propel itself to victory.

St. Aug’s Toi Jenkins passed for 247 yards and three touchdowns, completing nine of his 26 attempts. Larry Dace caught two touchdown passes.

Hahnville’s Easton Melancon passed for 190 yards and two scores on 8 of 15 passing. One of his touchdowns was to Travis Faucheaux, whose 47-yard catch put HHS ahead by a touchdown at halftime.

Fournette would pull his team within one on a scoring run, though, and St. Augustine took the lead for good on a 26-yard touchdown pass from Jenkins to Dace.

EAST JEFFERSON 26, DESTREHAN 14

HARVEY – East Jefferson built a 26-0 lead then held off a Destrehan rally en route to capturing a 26-14 victory at Hoss Memtsas Stadium Friday.

Destrehan made its comeback effort when Dillan Dent connected with Ferman Victory for a 10-yard touchdown, then followed up with a Kevin Smith 13-yard touchdown run to make it a 12-point game with less than eight minutes left.

But a West Jefferson interception with less than three minutes remaining all but ended the Wildcats hopes of downing the No. 4 ranked team in Class 5A.

West Jefferson saw four different players reach the end zone, including defensive back Jeremy Jamison, who scored on an interception return. Jamal Gilbert, Ronald Lewis and Devin Scott all scored on the offensive side for EJHS.