Eunice opens district at OHS

OPELOUSAS – The Eunice Bobcats begin their quest for a District 4-4A title with a road trip to Opelousas High at Donald Gardner Stadium.
The Tigers opened the season with a 23-20 win over West St. Mary before back-to-back one-sided losses to Lafayette (40-7) and McKinley (42-0).
“When you deal with them you always deal with their speed,” EHS head coach Paul Trosclair said of OHS. “Their speed is always going to be more than ours.
“They are the track state champions and some of those guys play football,” the coach said. “If you don’t respect their speed, they can beat you to the outside and give you some problems.”
Eunice (2-1) opened the season with a 28-21 win over Northwest before falling to now third-ranked Jennings (31-14).
The Bobcats rolled up 387 yards of total offense, including 302 yards on the ground in the 28-12 win over St. Martinville.
“We started taking it to them as the game went on and I was pleased with that,” Trosclair said. “Any time you can rush for 300 yards, you have a chance to do well.”
Ty Ceaser finished with 120 yards on 16 carries and two touchdowns.
“We still made too many mistakes but overall it was better than the week before,” the coach said.
Trosclair said it is hard to prepare for Opelousas’ defense because it varies from game to game.
“You never know what they are going to do on defense,” he said. “It is always a scheme we haven’t prepared for so that can give us some issues.
“We need to stay with the blocking rules that we have and expect the unexpected,” Trosclair added.
Going into district play, Rayne is 3-0, followed by Crowley (2-1) and Eunice.
Beau Chene (1-2) and OHS are next, followed by winless LaGrange and Washington-Marion.
In spite their record, Trosclair said LaGrange is still the favorite to lead the district.
“I think LaGrange is the class of the district,” he said. “They are the biggest school in the district and they have the most athletes.”
The Gators lost to Notre Dame (24-14), Barbe (34-6) and undefeated University Lab (27-26).
“I think anybody can get anybody else in our district,” the coach said.
“This should be the time we start putting things together,” Trosclair said. “Hopefully we will be better this week than we were last week.”