By LORI LYONS, Journal Sports
The St. Mary’s Tigers come home Friday night hoping to turn frustration into celebration, but it’s not going to be easy as it was last year.
St. Mary’s plays host to Many Friday night at 7 in Turpin Stadium. Last year, SMHS stunned a struggling Many team on the road, scoring a 24-point victory over the Class 2A Sabine Parish Tigers, who are much better this season under new head coach Tyler Hassel, a former Natchitoches Central assistant.
St. Mary’s hopes to rebound from last week’s heartbreaking 7-6 loss at Class 2A Holy Savior Menard in the annual Bishop’s Bowl.
Head coach Kedrin Seastrunk said last week’s loss — determined by a missed PAT, a missed field goal and a whole bunch of miscues — was probably the most frustrating game he had ever been associated with.
“I’m just not used to this,” said Seastrunk, who added he lost only six games in his whole Texas high school career. “I’m trying to learn how to come out of a situation I’ve never been in. I’m trying to give myself a little grace, but I don’t expect not to win.”
Many (2-1), which outnumbers Class A St. Mary’s by nearly 40 players, scored 49 points in a Week 2 win over Class 4A DeRidder and gave up 48 in a loss to 4A Leesville last week.
Last year, St. Mary’s broke out for a 64-40 victory over the other Tigers.
“They might be the same team, physically,” Seastrunk said. “But they have a whole new mentality.”
The Lakeview Gators have had a rough start to this season, losing their first three games in decidedly lopsided ways. The team has scored six points in three games while giving up… let’s just say a lot more than that.
Last week it was Woodlawn of Shreveport, the second Class 4A team that has bullied the Class 1A Gators, who had about 20 players on the home side last Friday night.
If anyone asks Gators coach Lawrence Seawood, who inherited this year’s brutal schedule, about it, he’ll be blunt.
“That’s the last 4A school this team should ever see,” Seawood said.
After this week, Lakeview will face only teams in Class 1A.
But first the Gators will go on the road to face the Class 2A DeQuincy Tigers (1-2), who still have twice as many players as Lakeview, none of whom are still in middle school. DeQuincy is coming off a 52-20 win over Class 1A Oberlin last week.
Seawood hopes his team matches up better with a team even a little closer in size and he is anxious to see if his team can improve upon last year’s 56-0 loss to the Tigers.
As he has since he took over at Lakeview last year, Seawood looks at the improvements his players make each week.
“We actually got a defensive stop,” he said. “It being homecoming, I guess everybody was amped up. They were flying to the ball, running to the ball. For the most part we were holding them pretty good.”
But a couple of miscues that led to big plays for their opponent.
“We’ve just got to learn how to execute,” he said.
Contact Lori at sportslyons@gmail.com