Raise your hand if you thought the St. Mary’s Tigers football team would be 5-0 heading into district play.
OK, the four dozen or so St. Mary’s coaches, players, student staff and mascot, put your hands down so we can see the others.
Not many.
C’mon, join me in admitting you didn’t forsee St. Mary’s running the table on a non-district schedule that sent the Tigers against no fellow Class 1A teams, just bigger schools, four from Class 2A and one in 3A (Grant).
But Vidalia went down, 22-6. Then a fourth-quarter thriller in Coushatta ended with a 26-20 triumph for the visitors, who posted the winning points with nine seconds left. (Bookmark this outcome.)
Week 3 brought the annual Bishop’s Bowl pitting St. Mary’s against Alexandria’s Holy Savior Menard, which had edged last year’s Tigers 7-6 in the mud. On the Turpin Stadium turf this time around, the Tigers roared to a 46-14 win that wasn’t really that close.
The last two weeks have given Tiger fans more than expected.
St. Mary’s traveled to Dry Prong to take on Grant’s Cougars and their spectacular Tulane commitment, Aymaud Sykes, a running back who scored 10 touchdowns in one game last year against Montgomery. Sykes proved to be all that, but the Tigers kept battling and won another at the end, driving 55 yards in just over a minute right after the Cougars had taken a 28-21 lead. The decisive points, a touchdown and a two-point conversion run (first-year coach Jacob Carruth wasn’t going to play overtime), came with 21 seconds left.
OK, great win, another thriller on the road, clutch, clutch, clutch play by St. Mary’s over a bigger school. But Grant was just 1-3 (although against a strong schedule).
Winnfield was next. Those Tigers came into last Friday night 3-1 including a 48-28 victory over St. Mary’s new District 3-1A opponent, Jonesboro-Hodge.
But the red-clad crowd at Stokes-Walker Stadium didn’t see what they came to watch. St. Mary’s took it to their Tigers, and after a Carter Hogg field goal lifted the visitors up 17-14 at the half, Winnfield couldn’t score again. St. Mary’s salted it away with another fourth-quarter scoring drive and a clinching defensive stop in the closing minutes.
This 5-0 start is, pure and simple, remarkable.
Not that it’s getting much respect from most of the 11 Louisiana Sports Writers Association members from around the state who cast votes each week ranking the top 10 teams in the five classifications, and specifically in the Tigers’ case, Class 1A.
After the Grant win, SMHS got one 10th-place vote, good for a point in the poll rankings. Following the Tigers’ fifth straight, this week they picked up a whole three points. Don’t know if that was the same voter who moved them up to seventh on his top 10, or if another 1-2 added St. Mary’s, but the “also receiving votes” list read: East Feliciana 23, Ascension Episcopal 14, South Plaquemines 9, St. Mary’s 4, Elton 2.
I like sportswriters. I am one of them. Not a poll voter, a writer. I hate to criticize my pals, but gang, can I have your attention? You’re missing the boat here.
Need evidence? Check the LHSAA’s power rankings. Granted, they split Class A into the Select and Non-Select categories of Division IV, but there’s a formula that considers strength of schedule, records, and objectively ranks every team in the state along with its peers.
St. Mary’s is No. 3, in the state, in Select Division IV. That doesn’t include schools like Haynesville, Kentwood, Jeanerette and Logansport – all Non-Select schools ranked in the LSWA Top 10. But it does include six Select teams, and St. Mary’s isn’t close to the 40 points required to crack the writers’ rankings.
Make this make sense.
Bottom line is, it just doesn’t matter. Polls are subjective and have no bearing on the Tigers’ destiny.
What is next certainly does. Friday night, Logansport comes to Turpin Stadium. Those Tigers were in the middle of the top 10, as usual, and were unbeaten until last week. Then the aforementioned Red River Bulldogs, winless (against a tough schedule), came to the town on the Texas border and pulled off a stunning 30-24 upset.
That just doesn’t matter, either. At 7 o’clock Friday night in Turpin Stadium, another Logansport-St. Mary’s clash matters.
It’s a matchup that has usually determined the district championship for years now. It looks like it may very well again.
It will reward the winner with a nice boost in power points. And if the local boys of fall prevail, maybe plenty more of my LSWA pals will notice and give St. Mary’s the respect this team has earned.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com