Lions renew longest rivalry in SWLA

The Vinton Lions will travel to DeQuincy on Friday for their regular season finale against the Tigers. The meeting will be the 73rd time the two schools will have faced off and is the currently longest standing rivalry in the area.

“It’s DeQuincy and that’s all that needs to be said,” said Lions’ head coach Wendell LeJeune. “They have been playing for a hundred years and this is the 73rd meeting between the two schools and it’s still fairly close as far as wins go. We are close and we compete in a lot of things so they’ve always been a rival. It doesn’t matter what the records are, we are going to go play.”

While the Tigers have had a successful season this year, DeQuincy will be looking to do something that they haven’t been able to do under head coach Brad Kellogg. Under Kellogg, the Tigers have not won against Vinton in the past three years with the losses by a total margin of just 12 points.

“It’s a friendly rival,” LeJeune explained about the rivalry. “It’s not that we hate the people in DeQuincy or anything. If we are going to win one game, we would like for it to be against DeQuincy and it’s like that every year. It’s one of those things you grow up with and hear about it.”

Last week the Lions came two points short of their first win of the 2009 season against East Beauregard.

The Tigers have more weapons on offense than a battleship. 13 different players have rushed the ball for DeQuincy this season along with five different receivers with receptions. The offense for the Tigers is headlined by senior quarterback Jacob Dietz (6‘1”, 175lbs) and senior receiver Caleb Kellogg (6’0”, 175lbs).

Dietz has thrown for 1,550 yards while completing 56-percent of his passes and has 17 touchdowns on the year. Kellogg leads DeQuincy in receptions with 44 for 835 yards and 12 touchdowns. Senior Layton Braneff (5’10”, 140lbs) is second on the team with 359 yards on 16 receptions and four touchdowns.

“Kellogg is a good receiver; just throw the ball around him and he will go get it,” LeJeune said on the Tigers’ receiver. “Dietz is doing a good job of getting the ball up in the air and throwing it to spots where Kellogg can go get it. Braneff is faster than all of them. Their backs are tough and the have a good overall offense, the only thing they are missing is the real big line.”

Leading the Tigers in rushing is senior Randall Carter. Carter (5’6”, 145lbs) has rushed for 614 yards on 76 carries this season and has scored five touchdowns.

LeJeune said the best defense against DeQuincy will be a ball-control offense.

“We have to control the ball and spend time on offense,” LeJeune explained. “If not, there is no way we can contain them with them running and throwing the ball that well. We need to hold onto it more.”

Last week, the ability to hold onto the football strained the Lions’ offense. Vinton put the ball on the ground six times and turned the ball over four times on fumbles.

“The fumbles really stopped some drives,” LeJeune continued. “We ran the ball fairly well but the fact that we dropped the ball too many times to stop drives is what hurt.”

Nonetheless, the Lions had their second best offensive performance of the year against the Trojans last week with 272 yards on the ground. Two players ran for over 100 yards led by sophomore Kelby Hebert with 174 yards and a touchdown and junior quarterback Joe Prince added another 106 yards rushing with a score.

LeJeune said that the plan against a fast Tiger defense will be to run at them instead of trying to out run them.

“They are pretty fast,” LeJeune said on the Tigers’ defense. “They have five that could probably outrun our fastest guy. They are not real big on the line, but they are real scrappy on defense. We are hoping that we can run at them, because I don’t think we can run away from them. We are going to have to try to find a crease for an eight or ten yard gain. We should be able to run some stuff to get some decent yards.

“They are going to make some plays because they stunt so much and they move around on defense so much. If they dial the right number on one play, we will have to forget about it and go on to the next play.”

Friday night will be senior night for the Tigers and kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. in DeQuincy.