Establishing the Program

It’s been a while since the Abbeville High Wildcats were consistently thought of as a contender in the football playoffs.
Head coach Roderick Moy and his staff are working to change that and make the Wildcats a perennial playoff team aspiring to make deep playoff runs.
It started with a surprising 9-1 regular season in 2021 that saw Abbeville go 11-2 overall and reach the quarterfinals.
The Wildcats followed that up with a 7-5 mark in 2022 that included a first-round win.
This year’s senior class has added the school’s first district championship in 25 years and the first outright district title the team has won since 1997.
“We want to drive and make sure that now people aren’t just talking about that one 11-2 team in 2021,” Moy said. “We are driving to make ourselves a program that can be respected across the state year in and year out as a quality football program.”
Abbeville opens the Non-Select Division II playoffs at home on Friday against Pearl River (5-4).
The Wildcats won’t be sneaking up on the Rebels.
“I think people can say we caught them by surprise in 2021,” Moy said. “I don’t think people can say that anymore.”
It’s a credit to the schedule, which has included back-to-back Select Division III state champion St. Charles Catholic (10-0 and the No. 1 seed in the Select DIII playoffs) and St. Mary’s of Natchitoches (7-2, No. 6 in Select Division IV), which has been in the quarterfinals for three straight years.
“The schedule we put together and the brand of ball and the success we’ve been able to have, I think has put us up there with some of the quality teams,” Moy said. “We’re one of those teams now, hopefully, that people think to be successful for two or three rounds (in the playoffs), some of those games have to come through Abbeville.”
Abbeville scheduled St. Mary’s and St. Charles on the road to prepare the Wildcats for the rigors of a potential long trip for the playoffs.
“We don’t want our kids to be caught off guard, either,” Moy said. “Sometimes people take long trips and that gets them out of their daily routine of being in school all day. Sometimes kids are funny like that. We want to make sure we’re doing everything to make sure we’re preparing them for every situation. That way, when those things do come up in the playoffs, and you do have a two or three hour ride, that’s not going to be anything foreign to our kids, and they’re going to be ready for that and they’re going to be prepared for that and we’re going to be able to go out and just play the best game we can play without having to worry about any distractions because we’ve been through those things before.”
The Wildcats bring their veer option attack into the playoffs with a number of ballcarriers contributing. Justin Montgomery has 677 yards and six touchdowns on 92 carries, while Edmar Simon II has 665 yards and nine TDs on 69 rushes. Ta’Zavian Andrews has contributed 330 yards and a touchdown on 53 runs and fullback Zaylun Williams has 205 yards and five touchdowns on 26 carries. QB Da’Zavien Maze has 230 yards and two touchdowns on 30 carries.
Williams also is a full-time starter on the defensive front, and Tahj Judge, who also plays some at quarterback, is a stalwart at defensive back.
“With our brand of ball it’s more of a wear-people-down than an early shot-taking thing,” Moy said. “Hats off to Kaplan (in the regular-season finale). They came in prepared, and slowed us down. But one thing about this offense, once we get going we’re tough to slow down.”
Pearl River is scary on offense, Moy said, using a run-oriented spread offense.
“They have two 1,000-yard backs, both over 200 pounds, so they’re going to be tough to stop,” he said. “We’re going to have to play, for lack of a better term, a Kaplan style ballgame of our best defense is going to be our offense, keep those two guys on the sideline while we hold onto the ball and hold onto the clock.
“Once we get in the red zone, we have to score. We’re going to have to score touchdowns. That’s the main thing for us. We can’t give those guys extra opportunities, and make the most of the opportunities we do have once we get into the red zone.”