By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

EDGARD — West St. John fell behind 6-0 early in its district championship showdown with White Castle, at the time begging the question: would the Bulldogs, the last WSJ district foe to defeat the Rams, end West St. John’s 22-game district winning streak?

The answer was emphatic no.

West St. John bulldozed its way to 284 rushing yards en route to 40 unanswered points, the Rams beating the Bulldogs 42-6 to clinch the outright District 8-1A championship.

With the win, the Rams all but officially nailed down a first round bye in next week’s opening round of the Class 1A playoffs and turned back a challenge from a White Castle team that would have secured a shared district crown with a victory.

West St. John (8-2, 5-0) lost all but two offensive starters from last season’s 1A semifinalist but has scored no less than 30 points each week since Week 4 of the season. The Rams won all but one of its district games by 24 points or more.

Head coach Robert Valdez said winning a district crown never gets old.

“When you look at our district and the good teams it’s produced over the years, the White Castles, the Ascension Catholics, the St. John-Plaquemines … to look at that and see now that we’ve got a senior class that can say they never lost a district game, it speaks volumes about them,” Valdez said. “That’s something to be very, very proud of.”

WSJ’s Bradley Borne rushed for a game-high 127 yards on 16 carries, while Lamore Boudoin added 104 on 16 attempts. Jemoine Green completed 10 of his 19 pass attempts for 133 yards.

Dontrell Taylor put White Castle on the board early via a 48-yard touchdown run, but WSJ answered back after recovering a White Castle fumble in Bulldogs territory, scoring on a 5-yard pass from Green to Jordae Gauthier early in the second quarter. Boudoin’s two-point conversion run put WSJ ahead 8-6.

Boudoin extended the Ram lead to 14-6 on a 5-yard run and Borne scored a two-pointer to make it a 10-point lead.

Boudoin’s second touchdown run of the night made it 23-6 at halftime. He scored again on a 2-yard run early in the second half after Trey Nathan blocked a White Castle punt.

Borne broke a 25-yard touchdown run and Dontrell Louper a 6-yarder to round out the WSJ scoring.

The Rams suffocated the Bulldogs offense after White Castle’s opening drive, holding quarterback Jacory Jones to no completions and one interception. Taylor finished with 71 rushing yards, the Rams holding him to negative yardage in the second half.

Valdez said before the game the team that won the battle at the line of scrimmage would emerge the victor, and his team took it to heart.

“(Taylor) can play for anyone in the state, he’s that good,” Valdez said. “Our defense really did a standout job to keep him in check, aside from that one big run. Especially our linebackers tonight … I thought Trey Nathan did a good job on the perimeter. Austin Alexander, Nick Borne, Jordan Gauthier … all of those guys did a really good job for us.”