Bowling report
Sat, 11/03/2018 - 6:11pm
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Rivals CCHS, VC meet with seeding on the line
Sat, 11/03/2018 - 5:37pm
GEOFF STOUTE
Rivals Central Catholic and Vermilion Catholic will meet Friday in Abbeville in District 7-1A action with playoff seeding on the line.
The teams are back-to-back in the latest Louisiana High School Athletic Association Division IV power rankings as Vermilion Catholic is No. 4 and Central Catholic, No. 5.
“It’s a big game for seeding,” Central Catholic Coach Tommy Minton said. “If we win the ball game, we have a chance to be the fourth seed. If we lose the ballgame, we’re going to drop anywhere around six or seven, and they have a chance if they win the ball game to move up to three and if they lose, they drop somewhere around five.”
The teams are playing for an opportunity to secure home-field advantage for multiple rounds, too, Minton said.
A week ago, Central Catholic defeated Centerville 40-30 in district play, while Vermilion Catholic topped Highland Baptist 61-6 in league play.
Vermilion Catholic (9-1 overall, 4-1 in district) is led by its passing game in its spread offense. Quarterback Drew Lege has completed 121 of 192 passes for 1,954 yards with 22 touchdowns and four interceptions.
“He got a chance to start a couple games as a freshman last year when his brother was hurt, so he got a little bit of experience coming into this year, but he’s done a good job for them,” Minton said of Lege. “Makes all the throws pretty well.”
Lege's leading receiver is his cousin, Ethan Lege. Ethan Lege has 44 receptions for 322 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Collin Broussard has 19 catches for 322 yards and two touchdowns and Garrett Wiggins has 28 catches for 230 yards and five scores.
“Ethan is a really, really good athlete,” Minton said. “He’s a big kid, about 6-foot, 1 (inch), about 200 pounds, and he’s really dangerous with the ball in his hands after the catch.”
In the run game, Vermilion Catholic features Kalix Broussard, who has rushed 92 times for 457 yards and seven touchdowns.
“He’s been starting at running back for them since his freshman year. … He does a good job running the ball for them out of that spread offense,” Minton said.
Defensively, standouts for Vermilion Catholic are defensive end Quinton Marshall and linebacker Jacques Touchet.
Central Catholic is led by its run game this season. Running back Davidyione Bias has 191 carries for 902 yards and 12 touchdowns, while quarterback DeDe Gant has rushed 69 times for 593 yards and eight scores.
Gant has completed 43 of 78 passes for 751 yards with 13 touchdowns and four interceptions.
Brooks Thomas is his top receiver with 20 catches for 420 yards and six scores, while Bryce Grizzaffi has 11 receptions for 204 yards and four scores.
Friday’s game is set for a 7 p.m. kickoff.
Berwick and North Vermilion will meet in District 8-3A finale
Sat, 11/03/2018 - 5:32pm
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Lumberjacks will close their 2018 season at Kaplan Friday
Sat, 11/03/2018 - 5:26pm
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Morgan City will meet Assumption in Week 10
Sat, 11/03/2018 - 5:05pm
GEOFF STOUTE
Morgan City High School will be looking to close its season on a positive note Friday when it hosts Assumption in District 7-4A action.
Morgan City (2-7 overall, 0-5 in district) has lost its last six games. In the last three contests, Morgan City's offense has been held scoreless.
A week ago, Morgan City fell 31-0 to Vandebilt Catholic.
Meanwhile, Assumption is 7-2 overall and 5-0 in district play. The Mustangs clinched a share of the District 7-4A title two weeks ago with a 14-13 win against Vandebilt Catholic. With a win Friday or a Vandebilt Catholic loss, Assumption can win the outright district title.
A week ago, Assumption's five-game winning streak was snapped as the squad fell on the road to Isidore Newman 42-26 in nondistrict play.
Turnovers hurt Assumption a week ago as the Mustangs gave the ball to the Greenies six times.
On a positive note, though, Assumption's run defense held Newman to 45 yards on the ground.
Morgan City's offense is led this season by Devonta Grogan, who has rushed 54 times for 431 yards with four scores, while Kerwin Francois has carried the ball 76 times for 360 yards and four scores.
Grogan has completed 20 of 33 passes for 195 yards with five interceptions, while Khai Hartley has completed 22 of 44 passes for 191 yards with two touchdowns and four interceptions.
Matthew Griffin is Morgan City’s leading receiver with 13 catches for 154 yards and a score, while Francois has 12 catches for 116 yards.
Morgan City High School Coach Chris Stroud did not return a call seeking comment on Friday's matchup.
Additional reporting by www.bayoupreps.com.
MCHS, Berwick win in first-round action
Sat, 11/03/2018 - 4:57pm
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Hospital board moves to keep LifePoint at Teche Regional until replacement is found
Fri, 11/02/2018 - 8:31pm
By BILL DECKER
On a night usually devoted to high school athletics, the St. Mary Hospital Service District No. 2 board played a little hard ball.
The board voted unanimously Friday to give LifePoint Health, which has announced its intention to give up its role as operator of Teche Regional Medical Center, until Nov. 9 to agree to stay in place until the district releases it from its obligations under the current lease. And that appears to mean until the board finds a company to take over Teche Regional’s management.
Without that agreement, the board says it will go to court to stop LifePoint from leaving Teche Regional.
The district’s board and LifePoint had announced together that LifePoint would pull out of its lease, which has another 23 years to run, on Dec. 31.
LifePoint, based in Nashville, Tennessee, was acquired earlier this year by Apollo Global Management. The company also announced it was pulling out of its Louisiana operations.
LifePoint’s relationship with the district has sometimes been contentious. The company won a lawsuit against the district two years ago over who gets to appoint the district’s representative to Teche Regional’s own internal board.
Since LifePoint announced its plan to depart, the district board has begun negotiations with Ochsner Health System, which is based in Jefferson Parish and which operates 11 hospitals and clinics, 10 of them in Louisiana.
The joint announcement of the preliminary agreement between LifePoint and the district board offered assurances that the hospital would remain open and continue offering medical service in any event. Friday’s meeting appeared to be a move to make sure the district keeps that promise while negotiations with Ochsner go on.
After the district board emerged from a closed-door session of more than an hour Friday, member Donald Stephens moved to give LifePoint or PHC Morgan City LLP, the name under which LifePoint has operated Teche Regional, a Nov. 9 deadline to agree to “continue operations at Teche Regional Medical Center and to discharge all its (their) obligations” under the lease.
If LifePoint doesn’t comply, the district will seek to legally enjoin LifePoint from discontinuing hospital operations until released by the district or until the lease expires.
The motion passed 5-0. One seat on the seven-member board remains vacant after the resignation of Natchez “Trey” Morice, a candidate for parish coroner. Member Bill McCarty left late in the executive session discussion.
CCHS cruises past Chris Episcopal; Patterson falls to St. Thomas Aquinas
Fri, 11/02/2018 - 4:45pm
GEOFF STOUTE
The Central Catholic Lady Eagles cruised past Christ Episcopal in Division V first-round action with a 3-0 (25-6, 25-6, 25-12) victory in Morgan City Tuesday.
No. 3 Central Catholic, which is led by a veteran squad, never trailed throughout the three-set match against No. 30 Christ Episcopal. The Wildcats are in their second year as a member of the Louisiana High S c h o o l A t h l e t i c
Association, and they were making their first volleyball playoff appearance.
“It was a good win for us. We came out pretty strong,” Central Catholic Coach Latashia Wise said, noting the Lady Eagles have been off about a week. “It’s a good way for us to try to get back in a groove before our next playoff game.”
In game 1, 2-1 was the closest the score ever was before Central Catholic (34-8) reeled off points in chunks, including a 12-0 run to make an 11-3 advantage a 24-3 lead. Central Catholic’s Bailey Lipari recorded eight aces during the run, including six straight.
Central Catholic closed the set with a kill by Katie Hoffpauir for a 25-6 win.
In game two, Central Catholic used strong serving and its front-row attack to take the set. Symone Wiggins’ ace closed the set for a 25-6 win.
In game three, Christ Episcopal (8-19) had its lone tie of the game at 1 on a kill by Elizabeth Cervalo.
While Central Catholic dominated much of the set, taking a 13-point lead on two occasions, the last at 22-9 on a hitting error by Christ Episcopal, Christ Episcopal did double its scoring output in the third game from its point totals in the first
two games.
The Lady Eagles closed the set and clinched the match with a kill by Ava Nicar.
“This is an awesome experience to get out of this,” Christ Episcopal Coach Samantha Nestell said of the playoffs. “We’re so young. We have a lot of eighth and ninth graders on this team, so I’m hoping in a couple years down the road this
will pay off.”
Caroline Green, Yani Johnson and Katie Hoffpauir led Central Catholic. Green had 10 kills and one block; Johnson recorded eight kills, two digs, two blocks and three aces; and Hoffpauir totaled 34 assists and three kills. Other top Central
Catholic contributors were Lipari, eight aces, three digs and five kills; Nicar, eight kills and three digs; Emma Simmons, five digs and four aces; and Brooke Lipari, seven digs.
No Chris Episcopal stats were available.
Central Catholic will play the winner of the first-round matchup between No. 14 Crescent City and No. 19 St. Katharine Drexel in the regional round.
Patterson falls in 1st round
T h e P a t t e r s o n Lumberjills fell to St. Thomas Aquinas 3-0 (25-19, 27-25, 25-19) in Hammond Tuesday in Division IV Bi-District playoff action.
“We gave it our best shot,” Patterson Coach Chasity Toups said. “I told the girls to play with no regrets, and I believe they did just that. We had calls against us that we haven’t had all year, but that’s to be expected playing on the road.”
Briyanna Butler and Gabby Marcel led Patterson, Division IV’s No. 18 seed. Butler had 12 kills, three digs and two blocks, while Marcel recorded one ace, seven kills, 12 digs and three blocks. Other top contributors for Patterson (14-8)
were Kara Lawrence, one ace, seven kills and three digs; Deja Dugar, one ace, eight digs and eight assists; Emma Marin, one ace, one kill, four digs and eight assists; Katelyn Larson, three aces, two kills and eight digs; and Alayah Williams, eight digs.
Patterson will say goodbye to three senior players, Kara Lawrence, Katelyn Larson and Alayah Williams.
“I’ll miss my seniors more than they’ll ever know,” Toups said. “They are a great group of girls, and will do exceptional things with their lives. I’m very proud of who they are and excited to see what they’ll do with their future.”
St. Thomas Aquinas (20-14), Division IV’s No. 15 seed, now advances to the regional round where it will meet the winner of No. 2 Notre Dame and No. 31 M.L. King Charter.
Morgan City volleyball finishes 2-2 at Dunham's tournament
Fri, 11/02/2018 - 4:05pm
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Plenty of opportunity statewide for small-game hunting
Fri, 11/02/2018 - 4:03pm
JOHN K. FLORES
Hey out there! Can you hear me? Does anyone hunt squirrels and rabbits anymore? For the life of me, I don’t know why these critters now are taking a back seat to all other hunting?
There was a time whenm a kid’s first introduction to hunting was sitting with his pawpaw underneath an oak or wild pecan tree just before sunrise waiting for squirrels to arrive. Sadly, today kids that hunt pretty much go from being potty-trained to sitting in a shooting house overlooking deer feeders.
Nonetheless, from a fore-cast standpoint there may not be a more under-utilized, more abundant hunting resource, than small game in the form of rabbits and squirrels.
The most recent population status survey I could find on the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Website was compiled from the 2012-2013 season. According to the survey 22,100 rabbit hunters harvested 180,100 rabbits. That same report indicated 50,700 squirrel hunters harvested 872,100 squirrels.
By contrast, the most re-cent data compiled concern-ing the waterfowl program on the LDWF website was from 2001. At that time some 1.8 million hunters took to the field and marshes to hunt ducks and geese according to the report. This number was derived from hunters 16 years of age and older.
If my math is correct, there were 81 times more waterfowl hunters than rabbit hunters and 35 times more than squirrel hunters.
Oddly enough, unlike wa-terfowl and deer hunting, there is tremendous oppor-tunity to hunt small game on public land. Nearly every state wildlife management area allows rabbit and squir-rel hunting.
All one has to do, is go to the LDWF website, scroll over to public areas and facilities, and click on wildlife management areas. There is an interactive map where you can highlight the particular WMA you’re interested in. All you have to do next is locate it on the alphabetized list to find everything you wanted to know about the area – including if rabbit and squirrel hunting is allowed.
Additionally, there are 23 National Wildlife Refuges scattered across the state north, south, east and west, many which allow small game hunting. By doing a web search you can go to www.fws.gov/refuges/refugelocatormaps/louisiana.html where you’ll find a refuge locator map. Once you’ve located the refuge you’re interested in, you can do an additional web search to review its particular hunting regulations.
Bayou Teche National Wildlife Refuge in St. Mary Parish is a 9028-acre refuge located in the coastal towns of Franklin, Garden City, and Centerville. This particular NWR allows both rabbit and squirrel hunting.
Perhaps there is no greater opportunity to hunt small game than on Kisatchie National Forest. Kisatchie is massive, spanning some 604,000 acres in five ranger units (Evangeline, Vernon, Caney Lake, Middle Fork Unit, and Corney Lake).
I floated the Dugdemona River through the Kisatchie forest a number of years ago hunting both squirrel and wood ducks. The pine trees along the river looked like they touched the sky. And, the squirrels were abundant.
I did this trip just prior to Christmas, when the leaves were pretty much off the trees. Around each bend, squirrels were foraging along the banks of the Dugdemona. The challenge was getting off a shot from a sitting position while the canoe drifted with the current.
There was also the chal-lenge of how fast these critters could get up the side of the trees. My shots were quite often 30 to 40 yards up, by the time I squeezed the trigger. I quickly learned, Kisatchie is a place where you’ll want to use high brass number 6 shot when trying to shoot a mess of squirrels.
The thing about hunting squirrels north of I-10 in the upland piney woods, bottom-land hardwood swamps along the tributaries of Mississippi and agricultural woodlots is the abundance of mast crop. Even some of the worst years produce more acorns and wild pecans than necessary to sustain Louisi-ana’s thriving population of tree- rats.
It’s the same with the coastal parishes where there are abundant populations of gray squirrels in the marsh. Squirrels are omnivorous. Besides mast, they eat berries, buds, and even bird eggs. Barring any tropical events, coastal squirrels do quite well. What’s more, there’s nothing quite like paddling a pirogue along a canal bank in the marsh on a cool October or November morning, while quietly sneaking up on squirrels feeding in the hackberry and myrtle trees.
Rabbit hunting in the coastal marsh most years is nothing short of legendary. Following the waterfowl season is when things usually get cranked up on the Atchafalaya Delta WMA.
Many waterfowl hunters who have moored camps on the refuge take full ad-vantage of the sheer abun-dance of swamp rabbits and extend their winter stay well into late Februray. What’s more, it’s one of those best kept secrets they tell few about – other than close friends and family.
2018 has been quiet, where tropical storms are concerned for our area. Moreover, there has been plenty of sunshine and rainfall to promote an adequate supply of food resources for small game. The question is, will you take the time to go out and chase a few rabbits and squirrels this fall?