Both coaches knew it was going to be a battle, and it definitely was. The Vandebilt Catholic defense held a potent Sam Houston offense on their way to a 10-0 shutout win over the No. 13 Broncos in Moss Bluff on Friday.
The No. 20 Terriers’ defense held the Sam Houston offense to only 138 total yards of offense by mostly putting pressure on Broncos’ senior quarterback Orlan Lockhart.
“I think the key to the whole game was that we got to the quarterback,” Vandebilt Catholic head coach Laury Dupont said. “I know we sacked him, but we also put pressure on him. He’s a good one but we rattled him tonight.”
Lockhart was sacked four times by the Terriers defense and forced a fumble.
The game appeared that it would be scoreless at the half with both teams trading three and outs. Vandebilt Catholic took advantage of good field position with the ball at the Broncos’ 42-yard line and drove into field goal range inside the 1:17 on the clock. On fourth and six and the time nearing zero, the Terriers rushed the field goal unit onto the field and junior kicker Michael Blanchard hit a 47-yard field goal to put his team on the board with a 3-0 lead at half.
“Blanchard is a great kicker for us and he’s just a junior,” Dupont said. “He’ll be a Division 1 kicker next year. It was really great cause we didn’t have to think about it. He came out on the field and kicked it and kicked it with five or ten yards to spare.
“That got the momentum going into the second half.”
Vandebilt took the opening possession of the second half and ran nearly five minutes off the clock before Sam Houston’s first possession of the third quarter.
In that possession by the Broncos, Sam Houston picked up two first downs but the drive stalled with the help of a sack on Lockhart by Michael Ortego to force a punt.
The Terriers controlled the ball with another long drive that lasted into the fourth quarter.
“The third quarter just flew by,” said Sutherland. “We got one possession in the third quarter and in the fourth quarter we felt like we needed to keep the ball.”
Sam Houston had two drives in the fourth quarter. The first stalled nearing midfield and punter Evan Powell attempted a fake punt to keep the Bronco drive going, but threw an interception to Nyree Smith, who was deep to receive the punt.
The Broncos entered into Terriers’ territory on a Lockhart 46-yard pass to Trevor Avery on their second drive of the quarter. But Lockhart was sacked two plays later by Brandon Bolden to push Sam Houston into a long yardage situation and the Broncos were unable to convert.
“I knew it was not going to be easy,” said Sutherland. “They were real good on defense, and we knew that they were real good on defense. Tonight they manned up on our receivers and brought the house just about every play.”
In between the last two Sam Houston drives, the Terriers took advantage of good field position on the Broncos’ side of the field. Vandebilt drove 48 yards to the end zone capped off by a four-yard run by T.J. Cantrelle to seal the 10-0 win.
Cantrelle led all rushers with 80 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries for the Terriers. The Vandebilt quarterback added another 60 yards passing while completing 5-of-13 of his passes with an interception.
Patrick St. Martin rushed for 79 yards on 13 carries for VCHS and Ches Morrison added another 21 yards for the Terriers.
Lockhart led the offense for Sam Houston with 125 yards in the air (13-for-20, no interceptions) but had only nine yards on the ground. Perry Chatman led the Bronco rushers with 11 yards on one carry.
Avery led all receivers with 67 yards on five receptions for Sam Houston.
Friday’s defeat was the first time in 2009 Sam Houston has been held to a shutout and was the first shutout for the Terriers this season. The loss also marks the third consecutive time the Broncos have lost in the first round of the playoffs. The last time Sam Houston was held scoreless in a playoff game was 2005 when the Broncos lost 56-0 to Captain Shreve.
Moss Bluff, La. —
