The Vinton Lions return home this week still looking for their first win of the season against the winless Trojans of East Beauregard in a District 4-2A homecoming game for the Lions.
“It’s good for the kids; it’s good for the town; it’s good for everybody,” Vinton head coach Wendell LeJeune said on the homecoming game. “We have an opponent we can play with so it ought to be a good game.”
The game marks the fourth time this year the Lions will play a winless team, and the third time at home.
EBHS comes into the game led by all-purpose back Corey Townsley. Townsley leads the Trojans in rushing with 505 yards on 122 carries and five touchdowns and in passing with 282 yards while completing 15-of-26 passes with two interceptions and a touchdown.
“He’s been our all-purpose back this year,” said E. Beauregard head coach Robert Jackson. “He has had to play quarterback in several games and he is our main running back as well. He is able to play several different positions and he could probably play receiver if we had another back we could put in there. He’s done a really good job for us this year.”
Townsley took over at quarterback in relief of starter Justin Rutherford in the first game of the season. Rutherford injured his shoulder on the first series of the game at Oberlin and was sidelined for two weeks. Since then, Rutherford has worked himself back into game form with his best performance coming against Rosepine throwing for 90 yards and a touchdown.
With two capable throwers in the backfield, the Trojans have ran some plays out of the now popular wildcat formation. Rutherford has three catches for 62 yards out of the formation, but Jackson said that the wildcat could be shelved for this week.
“We have shelved that right now,” said Jackson. “We feel like we match up a little bit better in our power running game this week. It’s always there if we need it, but it’s not something we concentrated on this week.”
In addition to Townsley and Rutherford, the Trojans have a young, up-and-coming back in Seth Shirley. The sophomore running back has run for 364 yard on 96 carries and four touchdowns.
With so many weapons and different offensive formations, the Lions have had a lot to prepare for Friday’s contest.
“They scare me because they do a little bit more things than the other teams do,” LeJeune said. “Rosepine, South Beauregard, Pickering all have their running game. They have set plays to run it at you and they were good doing it. These guys have a little more plays to defend because they are searching for things. There’s no telling what will be coming off. When you have a lot of things to defend, it’s a lot to practice.”
The blessing and possibly the curse for Friday will be the wet weather forecasted. Rain is predicted for Thursday and Friday and the wet field conditions could make it tough for either team to be able to throw the ball.
“We have to run at them,” LeJeune said. “We won’t be able to run side-to-side too much. We are going to have to push it at them. We’ll throw the ball some on the first down of the series when the ball is still dry. As it gets sloppier it will be a different story.”
Quarterback Joe Prince currently leads the Lions’ offense with 331 yards and three touchdowns while sophomore Kelby Hebert has rushed for 313 yards and three scores. Dieon Sonnier ranks third on the team with 295 yards on 57 carries and a touchdown.
“They have had a rough year,” Jackson said on the Lions. “We can obviously tell where they are coming from. Watching them on film, they can move the ball well especially on the ground and the quarterback has a decent arm.
“They are like us. They just haven’t had an opportunity to put good drives together. Something always goes wrong whether it’s a penalty or fumbling the ball. We definitely respect them especially after watching them on film for three games.”
The Trojan defense has improved as the season has progressed, but Jackson is looking for his players to execute when they are in the position to make a play.
“Defensively we have gotten better as the season has gone on,” said Jackson. “Our defensive coordinator Gordy Glaser does a good job of coming up with good defensive schemes each week. Unfortunately we have had times where we had people in the right spot and just didn’t make the play. I’m hoping Friday night those guys will step up and make that one-on-one tackle that we haven’t made been making this year.”
Kickoff for the homecoming game is scheduled for 7 p.m. at B.S. Walker Memorial Stadium.
Vinton, La. —
