By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

 

RESERVE — Fireworks exploded in the night sky above Joe Keller Memorial Stadium on Friday night as East St. John players danced beneath.

Yes, for the Wildcats, it was homecoming. But the significance of ESJ’s 25-12 victory over Bonnabel was far greater: against all odds, a team with no school to truly call home post-Hurricane Issac is almost certainly headed to the Class 5A playoffs.

“This means everything,” said East St. John quarterback Leonard Davis. “The hurricane messed us up. We started 0-3. But we knew we were a better team than that.”

Added East St. John coach Phillip Banko, “It’s wonderful. I don’t care where they send us. We’re in. We’ll go anywhere.”

The game was close to a virtual playoff game for both teams. A loss likely would have knocked East St. John out of the top 32 qualifiers, while Bonnabel (5-4, 2-3) needed a victory to have a chance to move up into that range.

East St. John (5-4, 4-1) dealt with strife on the field and off all season long, including: the loss of its school campus, fieldhouse and equipment, all flooded beyond any kind of immediate repair; the displacement of many of its players and coaches from their homes; the midseason loss of top receiver Dez Broussard; and the resignation of offensive coordinator Dennis Lorio, among many, many other things.

Banko was tasked with guiding his ship through these rough waters. He paused before speaking after the game, his face a mixture of exhilaration, pride in his team and maybe even a little bit of disbelief.

“True grit. That’s all I can say,” said Banko, motioning toward his players. “Bonnabel’s a hard-nosed team. We had a fight on our hands … But that’s the thing about our guys. They’ll fight for each other.”

East St. John came within an eyelash of also clinching a share of the District 8-5A championship, but Hahnville secured an outright crown with a 47-44 overtime win over Destrehan.

The Wildcats all but put things away with 4:08 left in the game, when Davis scrambled, bought time and fired a pass to Troy Gerard in the middle of the endzone for a 19-yard touchdown that put ESJ ahead 25-12.

“I did it for my team,” said Gerard. “I knew we needed that one last touchdown to finish it.”

East St. John led 13-0 at halftime and seemed in total control — ESJ outgained the Bruins 171 to 20 in total yardage before halftime. But Bonnabel injected some drama on the back of the night’s biggest play, an 86-yard Treyvon Pittman pass to Jamal Evans with less than two minutes gone in the second half, making it a 13-6 Wildcats advantage.

Once again, the Wildcats responded to adversity with a resounding answer. East St. John faked a punt from its own 39 to extend its ensuing drive as Ahmani Martin converted — that was one of five fourth-down conversions on the night for ESJ. The offense made it count when Nigel Anderson rushed for the second of his two touchdowns on the night, a 1-yard score that made it 19-6.

Bonnabel pulled within a touchdown with 31 seconds left in the third quarter on a 1-yard Kevin Banks run set up by a 31-yard reception by Jamal Evans. It made it 19-12.

But East St. John’s defense allowed nothing else, holding Bonnabel to minus-14 yards in the fourth quarter.

“One of our coaches saw they had a sign that said, ‘Playoff Bound,’ hanging up at Bonnabel,” said Davis. “We used that. We saw it as disrespect. They had to beat us to get in and we weren’t going to let that happen.”

Instead, the Wildcats are “playoff bound”. And while he meant it as an affirmation of praise for his players, perhaps Banko all the same offered a hint of a warning to the other 31 playoff teams in Class 5A.

“I told them at halftime, nothing’s more dangerous than a Wildcat backed into a corner,” said Banko.

East St. John now has all it ever wanted — a chance to prove just that in the state playoffs.