By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

Two local teams with high expectations squared off at Lutcher Thursday night following a yearly tradition, as the Bulldogs scrimmaged West St. John.

Lutcher had to shake off some rust early as the two teams were locked in a defensive slugfest early on.

But a 40-yard touchdown catch and run by the Bulldogs’ Jarvis Landry jumpstarted the home team, and Lutcher would keep it up, finishing with a 38-7 advantage over the Rams.

West St. John kept things close early against a much deeper Lutcher team, trailing 6-0. But Landry made caught a 20-yard pass from quarterback Austin Brack at the West St. John 40 to set up his own touchdown, outjumping two Ram defenders and wiggling free for the score.

From there, the Lutcher offense was humming — the first team would add two more touchdowns before leaving the game.

Landry said the team just needed a little while to build some cohesion.

“Our line started blocking better. We made our reads, and the quarterback made his,” Landry said. “We all came together at once, and we made it happen.”

Brack also threw a touchdown to Brandon St. Pierre, and would run for a score.

He entered the game after starting quarterback Gavin Webster was shaken up early on. He was one of a number of Bulldogs who were forced from the game with injury, but Lutcher Coach Tim Detillier did not believe the injuries to be serious.

“We had some little nicks,” he said. “One good thing was to see when we had a guy come off to the sideline, another was ready to go in and perform.”

West St. John’s lone score came on Dray Joseph pass to Corey Warmington in the corner of the endzone.

The Rams weren’t able to establish the run on a strong, veteran Lutcher defense. The success they did find was through the air, usually with Joseph connecting with Terrance Nathan, who had a handful of long receptions down the sideline.

“Our focus is always to run. We tried to run at them without a lot of success,” said West St. John Coach Robert Valdez. “We were able to get deep once in awhile. But it’s all about blocking and tackling, and we’ve got to get better at both.”

Valdez said that the Rams will be better for Thursday’s experience, regardless of the final score.

“That’s a great program,” Valdez said of Lutcher. “They took it to us, and that’s what great programs do. But you don’t get better if you don’t challenge yourself against the best.”