Wildcats rally to stay unbeaten in district

ST. MARTINVILLE — The Abbeville High football coaching staff was confident that if the Wildcats stuck to their gameplan, they'd find a way to stay unbeaten in District 5-3A play, even after falling three touchdowns behind St. Martinville just a minute into the third quarter.
The Wildcats outscored SMSH 32-0 in the final 22 minutes of the game, including the game-winning touchdown on a diving catch by senior Brian Gordon of a 30-yard pass by Da'Zavien Maze with 10 seconds to go in the game.
"We talked about the backs, but how about our best receiver, our leading, returning receiver, going over for the first time in his life, playing in the secondary on defense, because that's what the team needed him to do," AHS head coach Roderick Moy said. "But at the end of the day, when the chips are down and we need the long pass, one play with 10 seconds left, I'm going to Brian Gordon. We threw it up, a 50-50 ball to give him a chance. And as we knew he would, four years in this program, he came through for us."
"All that effort and hard work we all put in as a team, it all came together and finally it worked out," Gordon said. "It was just a great experience for me."
The defense then clamped down on St. Martinville, with senior defensive end Te'Zarron Stewart knocking the ball loose from SMSH quarterback Kaden Zenon on the game's final play, then recovered the resulting fumble himself to seal the win.
"Every day this week we talked about the pain of discipline vs. the pain of regret," Moy said. "If they stayed with me, I wasn't going to panic. If we got behind 15, like we were down 21-6 (the score at halftime), we almost prophesised this thing. We talked about being down, and not giving up — staying the course, believing in each other, trust that we were going to find a way to put them in a position to be successful. And they did that for us."
Abbeville improved to 7-2 overall and 3-0 in district, setting up a showdown at home on Friday with Kaplan, which is also 6-2 and 3-0 after a 12-8 non-district loss Friday against Church Point.
"We just appreciate everybody for coming out and supporting us," Gordon said.
The Tigers made Abbeville work for the win. After the Wildcats took a 6-0 lead with 1:34 left on a 10-yard scoring run by fullback Zaylun Williams, SMSH scored on its next four possessions to build a 28-6 lead.
The Tigers (2-7, 1-3) did it largely on big plays. Zenon scored on an 11-yard run and Jayden Mallery kicked the PAT for a 7-6 lead with 10:42 left in the first half.
Running back Steven Blanco, who will sign with UL Lafayette after the season, then scored on a 59-yard run.
After the Tigers stopped Abbeville on downs at the St. Martinville 6, SMSH put together its second one-play scoring drive when Zenon raced 94 yards for a touchdown and a 21-6 lead before the break. Zenon had 144 yards on 13 runs and threw for 70 yards, but completed only 6 of 19 pass attempts.
Blanco, who ran for 216 yards and two TDs on 19 carries, scored on a 79-yard run on the first play from scrimmage in the second half for a 28-6 lead. That run put St. Martinville over 300 yards on the ground for the game at that point, but the Tigers netted only 50 more rushing yards in the game.
Abbeville dominated the rest of the game offensively as well, sticking to what they have done all year — running the ball with five different ballcarriers.
"We did what we do, though," Moy said. "We didn't do anything off book. We stayed with veer, we stayed with iso (downhill run with the fullback lead blocking), we stayed with G (two backs with the frontside guard pulling). We were us. And we fought all the way back with these kids.
"I couldn't be any more proud of these kids, not for the play on the field, but for the mentality. They went out there and trusted and played hard. We called inside runs when we were down 20 points, and they did the best they could, and they just did the best they could."
Moy then pointed to his heart, and the stitching that said "The Ville" at that spot.
"This right here," he said. "All heart, straight through The Ville (a nickname for St. Martinville) tonight. One of us was going to be it (The VIlle) tonight, and we stood up and made sure it was going to be us."
Maze, the Wildcats' sophomore quarterback, got things going with a 25-yard TD run. He finished the game with  65 yards and a TD on 12 carries.
Justin Montgomery scored the next two touchdowns on runs of seven and 59 yards. He finished with a team-high 134 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries.
Fullback Zaylun Williams, who had 44 yards and a touchdown on seven rushes, added the tying 2-point conversion to make it 28-28 with 3:52 left in the game.
Edmar Simon III added 52 yards on only five carries, helping Abbeville pile up 372 rushing yards as a team.
The defense then forced a punt, and AHS took over at the 24 with 1:46 left. A personal foul penalty and a pass interference penalty against the Tigers gave Abbeville a first down at the 38, and Williams converted a third-and-eight play with a 13-yard run with 15.5 seconds left.
Maze nearly hooked up with Chayson Gray on the next snap for the go-ahead touchdown, but Gray couldn't pull the ball in after a defender forced him to bobble it, which set up the final TD to Gordon.