RESERVE — Riverside Academy enters Friday’s contest for the first time under head coach Chris Lachney.

The Rebels are taking on the Southern Lab Kittens, which are facing the aftermath of a storm of a different kind when they begin play. The game is scheduled for Thursday at Walker High School.

Coming off of back-to-back state championship seasons, Southern Lab’s titles were vacated and their head coach fired by the school after the Louisiana High School Athletic Association determined they had violated state rules by recruiting players based on athletic ability alone.

Despite the dysfunction within the Kittens organization, Lachney said the Rebels are expecting to face a very good team.

“I know how it is going to affect us, and that is not at all,” Lachney said. “We are going to prepare our team to play the very best version of Southern Lab that there is. We signed up to play this team and this is the team that we are going to prepare for and let the chips fall where they may.”

Riverside is coming off a Division III select championship, but Lachney is quick to distance the 2017 club from the team that went 12-1 last season.

“Are we defending last year’s state championship?” Lachney asked. “No. We are not. We are trying to win this year’s state championship. Nobody is coming to steal our trophy no matter the outcome of this game. So we don’t look at it as defending a championship, we are just trying to win another one.”

ESJH at Plaquemine

The East St. John Wildcats take to the road for the first game of the season against the Plaquemine Green Devils.

Third-year ESJH coach Alden Foster is coming off a playoff appearance. His Wildcats are facing a team in the Green Devils who were knocked out of the postseason last year in the Class 4A quarterfinals in which only one point blocked them from advancing to the next round.

“We are playing a really good football team in Plaquemine,” Foster said.

“They run a wing T and they run an option with the wing T. On the defensive side, they play sideline-to-sideline football.”

The Wildcats are emphasizing one element of their offense in particular as a necessary part of the recipe for success.

“We have to be able to run the football,” Foster said. “That is one of the things we have going into this week. We have to run the football. That is the goal.”

Outside of a few players living in low lying areas of St. John the Baptist Parish, Foster said the recent area flooding and expected rain Friday night is not likely to slow down his Wildcats.

“The one positive thing is that we are playing on turf,” Foster said. “Plaquemine has turf and we have turf. That is one thing about having turf, even if you have to go and practice, you can go out on the turf.”

SCC at Chalmette

The St. Charles Catholic Comets will travel across the metro area to take on the Chalmette Owls for their season opener.

In 2016, the Comets were runners-up in Division III Select to Riverside Academy.

A much larger school, the Owls are coming off a playoff run last season that saw them fall in the first round of Class 5A action.

“The first game of the season is always exciting and sets the tempo for the entire year, and I think it is huge from that standpoint,” St. Charles Catholic head coach Frank Monica said.

Monica said he is extremely worried about the Owls.

“They are a very fast football team and big and physical,” he said. “I think they are very experienced. They have everyone returning from last year.”

The Comets are looking for a quick start and early control.

“We have to go out there in a hurry,” Monica said.

“There is always adversity on the road, so we must get up in a hurry, get ourselves ready and, hopefully, play better.”

WSJH vs. St. James

While West St. John High is moving down a class to Division 1A, one old foe remains the same, as the Rams host the St. James Wildcats Friday to kick off the 2017 season.

“It is a classic,” West St. John head coach Brandon Walters said. “It is a big rivalry between us and St. James High School. So, that in itself, makes it a big game. We expect it to be a lot of excitement and a lot of intense moments between the two teams.”

The Rams are coming off a quarterfinals run in last year’s Class 2A playoffs, while St. James featured a strong 2016 regular season in Class 3A before losing in the first round of the playoffs.

“We just expect them to pull the best out of us,” Walters said. “We look forward to it each year and it is always something special.”

Walters said the Wildcats should put his team to the test right away.

“It is week one against a top flight opponent and it is a rivalry game,” Walters said. “It puts a lot of pressure on you to be successful. You’d like to come out there and get your first win in week one. The rivalry definitely makes it a lot more interesting.”

— By Kyle Barnett