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After two games, the Abbeville Wildcats have shown nothing fancy with their offense. They play smash-mouth football. Hand the ball off and run it down the middle.
With a host of players carrying the football, the Wildcats got their first win of 2023, whipping Central Catholic of Morgan City 20-7. They finished with more than 200 yards rushing.
The Wildcats play host to North Vermilion next Friday.
Abbeville head coach Roderick Moy said he cannot play smash-mouth football three weeks in a row.
“If I am North Vermilion, I would put 11 in the box and make us throw,” said Moy. “We can get away with running the ball up the middle two weeks in a row. I don’t expect us to be able to do that three weeks in a row. We will have to throw the football and change our offense.”
The game was cut short by a full quarter because of a lightning delay. At the start of the fourth period, the referees pulled everyone off the field and fans had to leave the stands because of lightning.
After 15 minutes, the coaches and referees met to decide what to do next. They checked the weather radar and saw a thunderstorm on its way.
Central Catholic coaches agreed to cancel the game and not reschedule.
“The kids’ safety is way more important than the game,” Moy said. “We want to get the kids on the buses and back to school safely before the weather hits.”
That gave the victory to Abbeville (1-1).
The Wildcats used six players to carry the football,
Edmar Simon III was the leading ball carrier with six carries for 136 yards. He had two carries that totaled 130 yards. He had a TD run for 75 yards and a TD run for 55 yards.
The Wildcat with the most carries was Lathaniel Tizeno, with 10 carries for 34 yards.
The Wildcats led 14-0 at halftime, and its defense stopped Central Catholic’s rushing game. At halftime, Central Catholic had 34 yards rushing.
Zalen Hopkins and Te’Zarron Stewart had a couple of sacks for AHS.
The Eagles took the second half’s opening drive and went 44 yards for a score that made it 14-7.
However, on Abbeville’s first possession of the second half, Simon went around the left side for a 55-yard touchdown run. The two-point conversion pass was no good, and AHS led 20-7.
“Edmar is our homerun playmaker,” said Moy. “When we need a play to go outside, he is the guy.”
Moy was complimentary of what the offense did under the direction of quarterback Da’Zavian Maze.
“He commanded the football game,” the AHS coach said. “I’m not sure of his numbers, but the time we had the football was much more than theirs.
“He controlled the game. We controlled the game, which was never out of our hands.”

ERATH — North Vermilion scored on the first play of the third overtime period, then held Erath to negative yards on its final possession to claim a 23-15 win over the Bobcats on Friday.
It was a thrilling win for the Patriots under first-year head coach Joe Heintz, and a tough loss for the Bobcats, who fell to 0-2.
“Hats off to our defense,” Heintz said. “I thought we played with tremendous effort, and what they do on offense is scary, because they’ve got weapons all over the place. We stepped up when we needed to on defense and made some stops.”
Erath coach Eric LeBlanc also was proud of his team’s effort in the game.
“I’m proud of our effort, but there’s always some technical things that we need to fix, and making adjustments on the field, but those kids gave a great effort, and we’ll go back to the drawing board we’ll look at righting the ship on Sunday,” LeBlanc said.
The game was a defensive battle for much of the four regulation quarters and the three overtimes.
Heavy rains for much of the afternoon left the field soaked, and it quickly turned muddy, especially with another shower that came at halftime and lasted into the third quarter.
Erath outgained the Patriots 225 yards to 168, on the strength of 72 yards passing to North Vermilion’s 10. The Patriots held a 168-153 edge on the ground.
But after quarterback Lynkon Romero’s one-yard TD run in the first quarter for Erath and Grant Wise’s 18-yard touchdown run for North Vermilion in the second quarter, scoring opportunities were scarce until overtime.
Both teams set up for field goals, North Vermilion on its first drive after halftime and Erath on the final drive of the game with just three seconds left, but in both cases the snaps could not be handled on the muddy field and neither team tried the kick.
The Bobcats won the coin toss in overtime and deferred, giving North Vermilion a first-and-goal at the 10.
When the Bobcats stopped Tucker Denais on fourth down inside the 1-yard line, Erath had a chance to end the game by scoring on its possession.
But a holding penalty set Erath back on first down and the Patriots got a sack on fourth down to send it to a second OT.
This time, Erath got the ball first, and Mason Hebert barreled down to the 1 on first down. Romero scored on a sneak on second down, and the Bobcats went for 2, getting the points when Romero reached the ball over the goal line as his momentum was stopped short.
That gave Erath a 15-7 lead, and again the Bobcats looked to be in good shape when North Vermilion netted six yards on its first three plays.
Norris Benoit kept the Patriots’ hopes alive when he scored on a fourth-down toss from the 4, and quarterback Logan Thompson knotted the score at 15-15 by carrying in for the 2-point try.
In the third overtime, North Vermilion got possession first, and a play-action pass on first down saw Ethan Tate get wide open in the end zone for a 10-yard TD catch. Denais carried in for the 2-point conversion for a 23-15 lead.
“In overtime we’d been going jumbo a lot (with extra linemen and a power formation), and we hit them with a play-action,” Heintz said. “We thought it was going to be there, and it was.”
Then the Patriots turned up the defensive pressure, forcing an incompletion on first down and getting a 12-yard sack from defensive lineman Jace Baldridge, with help from a couple of teammates, on second down.
A third-down pass netted a few yards but those were lost when the ball was lateraled. On fourth down from the 24, a final pass fell incomplete.
The win is the first for head coach Joe Heintz, who took the reins this year. North Vermilion improved to 1-1 while Erath fell to 0-2.
Heintz said he couldn’t have been happier as he watched his team celebrate in front of the band and fans after the game.
“Look at them,” he said. “They deserve one like this, after last week’s tough loss, I’m happy for these kids.
“We’re going to enjoy this one this weekend, and we come back Monday. We’ve got Abbeville. It doesn’t get easier.”
LeBlanc said that his team faced adversity last season and responded well, and with a good senior group returning this year he expects the same.
“There’s a lot of returning seniors this year, and we went through a lot of adversity last year,” the coach said. “We went through some rough patches, some games where we played lesser than we were able to.
“I think we’ve got a good group here, a good group of kids that’s going to respond well. We’ll just get back to work on Sunday and Monday, when we put the pads on, and get ready to go for week 3.”
The Bobcats travel to New Iberia to face Catholic High on Friday. North Vermilion travels to Abbeville to face the Wildcats.

ERATH — Spectators at Erath High School football games will have more than the action on the gridiron to attract their attention when the season gets underway.
A new LED scoreboard with a rotating digital display of videos of EHS athletes and lighted numbers for the time, scores and other statistics was installed over the summer.
On Wednesday, a ribbon was cut for a new electronic scoreboard at Erath High.
EHS athletes, cheerleaders, principal Dr. Belisa Smith, and school board member Chris Hebert were joined by Bob Giles, owner of Giles Automotive, and Erath resident and alum Ryan LeBlanc, who is president of Giles Automotive. Ryan learned of the community fundraiser that was taking place to raise money to help pay for the electronic scoreboard.
He approached Mr. Giles, asking if he could help, and he responded with a sizeable donation.
“Giles Automotive enjoys giving back to the community,” said Mr. Giles. “That is what we do.”
The sizeable electronic scoreboard is the first of its kind in Vermilion Parish. The new scoreboard is comparable to the one at St. Thomas More High School.
The school will also generate money with ad sales.
Erath High began a media graphics class this year to teach students media graphics and how to operate the electronic scoreboard.
“Giles is our Victory package sponsor, and we appreciate that amazing sponsors like Giles Automotive support our community,” said Dr. Smith. “The new EHS scoreboard will give visibility to all sports hosted at EHS, including football, soccer, track & cross country. This includes events hosted for the youth of Vermilion Parish. The EHS community benefits from collaboration and inspiration from our sponsors who pay it forward, supporting us all year.”

Abbeville Chief of Police Mike Hardy had numerous department members approach him about becoming the new resource officer at Abbeville High School.
Officer Anaiz Gonzalez did so first, mainly because she was eager to fill a role she saw as vitally important.
“I am a single mom of six kids,” Gonzalez said. “I have five of my own and one adopted. I have seen a lot of things that youth go through in school. I think kids need someone they can talk to, somebody they may relate with a little more.
“I wanted to give whatever I had to this because they are good kids.”
Gonzalez, from Florida, came on with the Abbeville Police Department earlier this summer, having previously worked in New Iberia. She spent time last year as a resource officer at New Iberia Senior High.
During an Abbeville City Council meeting on Aug. 15, Mayor Roslyn White and city council members asked Hardy about placing an officer at the school throughout the day, looking to assure students and staff the safest environment possible. Hardy had previously pulled the resource officer to have everyone in the department on street patrol, but he did have officers stopping by the school multiple times a day. However, Hardy agreed that the time was right to put someone back at the school and said during the meeting that someone would be in place within two to three weeks. Gonzalez started at the school on Aug. 25.
“I think having an officer here makes them feel safer,” Gonzalez said of the students.
Vermilion Parish Superintendent Tommy Byler said on multiple occasions that the school system would cover the cost of having an officer at the school. The school system cannot hire a post-certified officer who can carry a firearm. That has to come from a local agency, like the Abbeville Police Department.
Assistant Superintendent Marc Turner visited with Gonzalez at Abbeville High on Tuesday morning. Turner said school system officials view Gonzalez as a great fit.
“We would have officers come and go,” Turner said of the previous daily routine. “The missing link was someone here consistently enough to build the relationships.”
Yes, Gonzalez is there for safety, but will be there for everyone in many ways.
“She is going to provide support,” Turner said, “for the teachers, faculty, and students. She will build relationships and support them with anything they need.”
Gonzalez said she does not take that responsibility lightly.
“It bridges many more gaps than people could imagine,” she said of her role.
Hardy expects Gonzalez will flourish in her new role.
“That’s going to work well for her,” Hardy said. “She’s got years of experience. She’s very outgoing and very professional.”
Students have responded well during the first few days of Gonzalez being on campus.
“I had a lot of kids come up to me by the end of the day on Monday,” Gonzalez said. “This allows them to see us (officers) on a human level, not just out there in patrol cars. Here, I get to talk to them. Many of them did want to talk to me. They asked me if I was going to stay.”
Not only does she plan to stay, but Gonzalez also plans to immerse herself in the Abbeville High community.
“I am going to be at their school activities and sporting events,” Gonzalez said. “I will be there cheering them on.”