Erath turns game over to Loreauville

LOREAUVILLE - Erath’s 45-34 season-opening loss to Loreauville Thursday night could be summed up in one three-word sentence.
Too many turnovers.
“It is almost mathematically impossible to turn the ball over six times in a game and win,” EHS coach Eric LeBlanc told his team after the Bobcats’ loss to the Tigers to start the season 0-1.
“You just can’t do that and win.”
But the Bobcats did just that. Erath finished the game with three interceptions and three fumbles and Loreauville was more than happy to cash them into four touchdowns as the Tigers rallied from a 14-0 deficit in the first quarter to take the lead in the second quarter and hold off three different EHS rallies in the second half.
“You cannot win with that many turnovers,” LeBlanc said. “You just can’t.
“Defensively, they did some good things against us, but you can’t give them that many extra possessions. And it just compiled on us tonight.”
The worst part of the loss was that Erath did some great things on offense against Loreauville.
Senior quarterback Lynkon Romero threw for 300 yards and two touchdowns; senior receiver Christian Pillette caught 12 passes for 150 yards, and a touchdown; running back Mason Hebert rushed for 52 yards, and as a team, the Bobcats had more than 400 yards of offense.
“We had some good performances tonight,” LeBlanc said. “Offensively, we did a great job. We moved the ball, and we had five touchdowns.
“But we turned the ball over five other times. I mean, it just didn’t happen for us.”
The first two times that Erath had the ball against Loreauville, the Bobcats put the ball in the end zone and led 14-0 in the first quarter.
But the when started to come off as Erath was driving to get its third touchdown of the opening period, and Romero fumbled the ball while trying to get extra yards on a run play.
Loreauville recovered the ball, went back down the field and cashed it in to cut the lead to 14-12.
“That play took the wind from us,” LeBlanc said. “Still, we came back and scored right before halftime. It just wasn’t our night.”
The other bad part about the game was that Erath’s defense couldn’t get the one or two critical stops when needed.
“On one play, they ran a QB sneak, and he bounced it outside and ran 40 yards and later scored on that drive,” LeBlanc said. “We had some good plays and some good efforts; we just didn’t have enough of them.”
Now the Bobcats have to regroup and prepare for North Vermilion next week.
“All we can do is watch film, see what we did wrong, and try to get better,” LeBlanc said.
Payton Pickens had three catches for 57 yards. Bo Lancon had two for 82 yards and a touchdown.