Eagles set for road challenge vs. Covenant Christian

The Vermilion Catholic Eagles will play Covenant Christian today at Nicholls State University’s John L. Guidry Stadium, and the game will be an important experience on several fronts for the Eagles.
Covenant Christian is experiencing a resurgent season this year and will challenge VC on the field, Eagles head coach Broc Prejean said. The nearly two-hour trip to Manning Field also could help Vermilion Catholic get a little bit of playoff preparation as well, both because of the venue and because at some point the Eagles might be asked to travel for the playoffs.
“We’re excited that we get to play on Nicholls’ football field, being a college environment, but it’s a little bit of a road trip, so we’re going to check the kids out early and try to mimic what would potentially be a travel game for the playoffs,” Prejean said. “We’ll get the kids there a little early, do some walk-throughs and just get their feet under them.”
Vermilion Catholic has won 23 straight regular season games after beating Highland Baptist 45-0 on homecoming night this past week. VC also honored the 1953 and 1954 Mount Carmel teams, as well as the 2003 and 2013 VC state champions on their 10th and 20th anniversaries, respectively.
Prejean said the Eagles don’t concern themselves with the win streak, focusing on each week’s game instead.
“That’s really nothing to us,” he said. “Each week is its own week, and any of that is just the culmination of a lot of hard work from our kids. We just want to win this week.”
The Eagles did a good job blocking out all the distractions last week, against a team that is better than its record indicates.
“I think our kids executed at a high level,” Prejean said. “They did present some challenges with the fronts they played on defense, and I thought our offensive line did a great job with that. Tahj (Williams) and Jon-Jon (Dartez) did a really good job of seeing holes and seeing their fits, which was great to see. And the defense did a really great job of anticipating and knowing what plays were likely coming, and snuffing out any momentum that Highland was able to get.”
Dartez rushed for 165 yards to push his total to 899 yards and 10 touchdowns, best in Vermilion Parish to this point. Williams had 124 yards, increasing his total to 411 yards, with eight TDs, which is fifth on the parish rushing total charts. Dartez also is third in the parish with 356 passing yards and four touchdowns.
Ross Dartez leads VC with 142 receiving yards on nine catches, and Dane Richoux has another 89 yards and two touchdowns on seven catches. Dartez (54 points), Williams (48) and Richoux (40) are in the top five in the parish in scoring.
Prejean said the defensive line played tremendously well last week.
The Eagles will have to continue to play at a high level this week against an improved Covenant Christian squad in the second District 7-A game of the season for VC.
“They’ve got a lot more numbers out there,” Prejean said. “They’ve opened the offense up a good bit, and they’ve played a lot of close ballgames. I know they’ve lost a few in a row, but they’ve lost them by I think a total of 18 points.
“It’s going to be a challenging game. The past few years we’ve had some kind of less-than-entertaining games with Covenant, but I don’t anticipate that to be the case this year. They’ve had a resurgence, and I know they’re going to be excited to line up against us. We’ve got to match that excitement.”
Covenant has two good running backs in Landon Winslow and Connor Lally, both of whom are electric ballcarriers, Prejean said. The QB also is an effective runner.
“We’ve got some challenges there,” Prejean said. “I think Covenant’s in a very good place to be competitive, so we’re absolutely, solely focused on them.”