By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

LAPLACE — Hahnville coach Lou Valdin hasn’t bothered hiding his intentions for the Tigers offense this season: his team will run the football early, and it will run it often.
At Thursday night’s Ed Reed River Parishes Jamboree, he proved a man of his word. Hahnville attempted just one pass, rushing for four touchdowns as it’s offensive line dominated in a 37-13 victory over rebuilding St. James at Hahnville.
Lynn Simmons rushed for two touchdowns to lead the way for Hahnville, which scored on its lone pass attempt of the night, a 34-yard touchdown from backup quarterback Logan Martindale to tight end Tyler Lamers.
Hahnville rushed for more than 200 yards on the night, with 160 rushing yards in the first half.
“We wanted to run the ball,” said Valdin. “I thought we had a pretty good pass rush. Those things stood out. I thought we played fast, which was a good thing. We have a few guys banged up tonight, but nothing looks too serious. Hopefully that’s the case.”
Things unraveled quickly for St. James, a once-state power that has gone winless in each of the past two seasons. A lost fumble and a bad snap on special teams led to nine Hahnville points and a 16-0 deficit that the Wildcats could never dig out of. Hahnville led 30-0 at halftime and 37-0 at one point in the second half.
The Tigers struck first on a 12-play, 79-yard drive capped by a 3-yard Simmons scoring run that made it 7-0.
St. James had a chance to interrupt that drive after forcing a fumble by Todge Scott, but the Tigers recovered five plays into the game.
“The ball laid there for a little while, and we didn’t have anyone there to get on top of it,” said first year coach St. James coach Dwain Jenkins, who made his debut on the Wildcats’ sideline Thursday. “We made the right hit, the right read, but we didn’t get the turnover. Those are the plays we’re going to have to make going forward. That’s the kind of play that stops a drive and maybe changes the momentum of a game.”
Hahnville wouldn’t miss on its own chance to force a turnover, as the Wildcats’ Qui han tai Adams fumbled on the team’s second play and the Tigers recovered at the SJH 24. Four plays later, quarterback Dylan Keller kept and scored on a 12-yard sweep to make it 14-0.
“We made a lot of mistakes, and you can’t afford that against a team like Hahnville,” said Jenkins.
A bad snap over punter Rashaan Dennis’ head and through the back of the endzone resulted in a safety, making it 16-0 with 5:22 left in the first half.
Rickey Preston chewed up 42 yards on a big return of the ensuing safety punt, and two plays later Simmons ran hard and scored on a ferocious, tackle-breaking 21-yard run that made it 23-0. Simmons left the game with an injury after the run, but Valdin said after the game that it didn’t appear to be serious.
Jyrus Evans scored to cap Hahnville’s last drive of the first half, a 1-yard score with 46 seconds left.
St. James scored for the first time with 10:07 left in the game. Freshman starting quarterback Lowell Narcisse left the game with an injury – Jenkins called it a precautionary move — Adams stepped in at quarterback and sparked his team. On his first play, he connected with D’Kwan Sandolph for a 41-yard strike that set up St. James at the HHS 1, and a play later Adams was in the endzone on a one-yard run up the right side.
St. James got one more score late, Aaron McKenny making a juggling catch of an Adams pass in the endzone for a score with six seconds left.
Jenkins told his team that Hahnville was probably “the biggest, fastest, strongest, most physical team we’ll see this year,” and conceded after the game that the final score was about what he expected given the stage of rebuilding his team stands at.
Still, he took some positives away from the contest.
“You saw flashes at times. We had some great returns in the kicking game. D’kwan showed something there, then went on to make a great catch. Q (Adams) did some nice things out there after being pressed in at quarterback. I thought our wide receivers started to step up and play with some confidence as the game went on. And (nose tackle) Jonta Jones, I thought he made some nice plays, but really he stood out in terms of his leadership tonight.
“We’re a team learning to handle success and failure. I think you might have seen players giving up in a similar situation over the past two years, and tonight I thought our guys refused to do that.”