Blue Jays brace for 4-A Gators

St. Edmund’s non-district schedule has been as tough as expected and it concludes with a clash with Class 4-A Beau Chene Friday at Blue Jay Field.
The Blue Jays (1-3) look to rebound against the Gators (3-1) as St. Edmund fell 39-18 to Class 3-A Port Barre.
“I think we did better against the run to some degree,” St. Edmund head coach Thomas David said. “We still need to improve on both sides of the ball.”
The Gators grabbed wins over West St. Mary (23-0), Pine Prairie (26-8) and False River Academy (21-6).
Beau Chene’s only loss came two weeks ago at Port Barre (27-13).
“They are a primarily a run-oriented team,” David said of the Gators. “They aren’t as big up front as Port Barre.”
David said they need to control the ball more on offense as the Red Devils had 61 plays for 303 yards of total offense as compared to the Blue Jays’ 221 yards on 43 plays.
“We need to convert on third down to keep from playing so many snaps on defense,” he said.
“Beau Chene is going to be a big test as they are going to run the ball right at us and see if we can stop them.”
St. Edmund quarterback Drake Brunet completed 19-of-33 passes for 214 yards and a touchdown in the Blue Jays’ 39-17 loss to Port Barre.
Blue Jay Gibson LaFleur had 10 catches for 127 yards rushing and he also scored on a 54 yard fumble recovery.
“We need to make key catches and not have as many penalties,” the coach said. “We had some opportunities to make some catches and we didn’t.
“We also had penalties (8-for-82 yards) that cost us,” he said. “We need to cut back on the mistakes.”
So far this season, Brunet has completed 66-of-136 passes for 988 yards with 10 touchdowns and nine interceptions through five games.
LaFleur is the Blue Jays top receiver as the runningback has 30 catches for 531 yards with five touchdowns.
David said the first five weeks have helped prepare them for the District 5-1A race against Basile (4-0), Westminster Christian Academy (3-1), False River (2-2), Catholic High of Pointe Coupee (1-3) and North Central (0-4).
“The teams in district are more like us,” the coach commented. “They won’t have guys going just one way.
“Hopefully this has conditioned us and helped us be able to play at a higher speed and a better entergy.”