Eerie familiarity

Basile looking to tame the Golden Tornado again
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When the No. 10 Basile Bearcats travel to No. 7 Hayesville Friday night for the second round of the Class 1A playoffs, they will already know what it takes to tame the mighty Golden Tornado and spoil the happy ending of a long time vaunted football program.
How does Basile know?
One just need look at last season. Eerily enough, in this same round of the post-season, the Bearcats went into Haynesville and took down the Golden Tornado 28-27 to advance on to the quarterfinals.
What is even more spooky, is that both teams hold the same seeding as they did in 2019. Game time in Haynesville is set for 7:30 p.m.
According to Basile head coach Kevin Bertrand knowing who and what you will face has its positives and its negatives.
“I don’t know if there is ever an advantage to playing a team like Haynesville,” stated Bertrand. “They are a great program for a reason. I guess if you had to pick an advantage is that most of the players that are on this team now were on the team last season when we beat them, so they have faced the mystique of Haynesville.”
“The disadvantage of playing them again is that we are definitely on their radar now,” Bertrand continued. “I am sure their coaches remind them every day what happened last season. That just means we are going to get their best and more come tomorrow night.’
No doubt Haynesville has been the standard bearer for Class 2A/1A football throughout the last 40 years. During that time the Golden Tornado have won 17 state titles and have been state runners-up on nine different occasions.
In fact, over the past 10 seasons, Haynesville has been to the quarterfinals every year except one; last season when they lost to Basile.
When asked what it is like to head into a place with that much football history, Bertrand said it can be intimidating the first time you are at their stadium.
“When you drive up to their place all you see is the 22 state championship banners hanging around the field,” said Bertrand. “I think last year, once we settled down and realized that this is just another football game, we began believing in each other and believing we can play with these guys.”
This season, the 6-2 Golden Tornado have had their way with most of their opponents, with two exceptions; losses to Homer (a No. 5 seed in Class 1A) and Calvary Baptist (a No. 1 seed in Division IV) in the last two games of the regular season. Haynesville had a bye in the first round of this year’s playoffs.
In the six wins this year, Haynesville has out scored their opponents 271-109. However, in their two losses, the Golden Tornado scored just 21 points while surrendering 92 points on defense.
“The two losses that Haynesville had at the end of the year were to some very talented football teams,” commented Bertrand. “Don’t get it wrong, Haynesville is a very good, solid club. They were also banged up at the end of the season when they played Calvary and Homer. They are a typical Haynesville team with a really good tailback and an aggressive defense. It will be a very tough task for us come game time.”
If anything, momentum is on the side of Basile. The Bearcats have rebounded from a slow 0-2 start to reel off four wins in a row, including last week’s dominating 40-0 win over Magnolia School of Excellence in the first round of the playoffs. Even a two week shut down due to COVID-19 protocols has not deterred Basile in the latter part of the season.
“It was just a matter of us being able to get some kind of consistency,” said Bertrand. “We have had so many starts and stops this year we could just never get anything going. Switching offenses in the middle of the season is usually a dangerous thing to do, but now I believe we have a great understanding of how our offense has to be run.”
“We’ve been able to add some depth to both sides of the ball over the last few weeks, especially on the defensive side of the ball,” Bertrand continued. “Getting that depth has helped us not have to play guys both ways the entire game. And basically, I think we are just having fun out there.”
So what will it take for the Bearcats to tame the Golden Tornado once more and advance on to the state quarterfinals for the second year in row?
According to Bertrand, consistency.
“We have to hold on to the football and not give them any extra chances on offense,” stated Bertrand. “We also have to avoid the three and outs on offense. Keeping the ball away from their offense and slowing down their tailback will be big keys for us getting the win.”