Blue Jays to celebrate homecoming

After five weeks of facing larger classification oppenents, the Blue Jays open District 5-1A play against False River Academy tonight for homecoming.
“Homecoming can be a distraction,” St. Edmund head coach Andy Hargroder said. “Hopefully the guys focus on our game.”
False River opened the season with three straight wins over East Iberville (50-24), Houma Christian (35-14) and Centerville (89-45) before dropping games to undefeated Beau Chene (41-14) and Northwest (56-14).
By comparison, St. Edmund lost to Northwest (42-6) and Beau Chene (25-6).
“I am proud of the way our guys have competed and not given up until the final horn.”
The Blue Jays (1-4) have scored only 19 points this season including a 7-0 win over Iota.
“Our defense has played pretty well against some pretty talented teams,” Hargroder said. “But our offense still hasn’t started clicking.”
The Blue Jays will need both to compete against a much-improved False River team.
False River‘s offense is led by dual threat quarterback Damian Johnson.
In the 89-45 win over Centerville, False River put up 822 yards of total offense – 485 yards and six touchdowns by Johnson.
The Gator quarterback has rushed for 800 yards thrown for over 500 yards so far this season.
“They have a very explosive offense,” Hargroder said of False River offense. “We have to contain their quarterback but he is not the only threat as they can score a lot of points.
“It is going to take an all-out effort by our defense,” he said. “We can’t have negative plays on offense – hopefully our offense is ready to break out this week.”
“If we can keep the game close with our defense, we will have a chance to score enough to win,” the coach said. “We are in district now so we match up better with the other teams – but we need to get players healthy.”
Heading into district, St. Edmund was also 1-4 last season and the Blue Jays esrned three district wins including a 50-0 shut-out over the Gators.
After a 3-7 finish last year, FRA has not had a winning season since 2004.