IOTA – Last year at this time, Basile Bearcat head coach Kevin Bertrand left the field after a loss to Iota with a number of doubts about how well his team would fare the rest of the season.
Although the Bearcats fell to the Bulldogs again last night, Bertrand feels extremely confident with the direction of his team this year despite the 28-10 opening game loss.
“Last year when we walked off the field after the Iota game, we knew it was going to be a struggle,” stated Bertrand. “This year, I felt that not only did we play with them, but we gave ourselves chances to be really into the ball game. Right now I think we are farther along than we were last year.”
Looking at the score of the game, it seemed as if Iota had control of the game throughout the contest. However, the Bulldogs had to wait until the fourth quarter to pull away from the Bearcats. In fact, it was Basile that was able to put up the first points of the game when quarterback Dawson Ashford took it in from two yards out early in the first quarter.
Abdul Mlingo added the extra point giving the Bearcats an early 7-0 lead.
Iota answered back later in the quarter. Junior running back Kollin Guillory was able to sprint in from the 13-yard line to put the Bulldogs back into the game. Carter Lejeune tacked the point after, tying the game at 7-7.
The next score did not come right away. It took almost a whole quarter before either team was able to put up any more points. As the Bearcat defense began to show signs of fatigue, Iota began to assert themselves on the offensive side of the ball and scored late in the second quarter when Luke Doucet hauled in a 38 yard pass from quarterback Trae Rambin. Lejeune’s extra point was true and the Bulldogs took a 14-7 lead into the locker room.
“We started to run out of gas toward the end of the half and it showed,” said Bertrand. “They have a ton more depth than we do. Even though we were subbing out guys, we still play a number of players both ways. They just took advantage of that right before halftime.”
Basile picked up a second wind after the long break and took the ball on a time consuming drive to open up the third quarter. Unfortunately for the Bearcats, a costly penalty halted the drive and forced them into a fourth down at the Iota 10-yard line. Basile decided to kick the field goal and Mlingo delivered, sending a 27 yard kick through the uprights to cut the Bulldog lead down to 14-10.
Iota closed out the game, scoring once in the third quarter on a one yard run from Luke Doucet and a fourth quarter 33 yard pitch and catch from Rambin to Micah Renfro. Both times the extra point was good, allowing the Bulldogs to take home the 18 point win.
After the game, Bertrand was very complimentary of his team’s effort.
“I am very proud of the effort that our players put out tonight,” commented Bertrand. “You can tell they played extremely hard, because they were just wiped out at the end of the game. We had two other opportunities to score and did not take advantage of those situations. We were able to step up in class tonight and compete with a really good ball club.”
Andre Reed lead the way for the Bearcats on the ground, chewing up 118 yards on 10 carries. Ashford finished the night nine of twelve passing for 139 yards and one interception. Isaiah Ceaser led all receivers with five catches for 93 yards.
Basile will host the Mamou Demons Friday night.
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TRACEY JAGNEAUX Sports Editor