Bayou gets big win over Hillcrest

By Kristy Kitchings

The atmosphere at Bayou Academy was a little different Friday night from the last several home games.  The weather was crisp and in the upper 30’s, the visiting  team brought a marching band, it was senior night, the blue and white school colors were replaced with camoflauge and the Colt players wore purple wrap instead of pink in honor of Domestic Violence Awareness.   Caleb Pilgrim, Hunter Kovac, Seth Muzzi, Ty Holder and Mitchell McNeer stood at center field as captains and ready to redeem themselves after last Friday night’s home loss. It has been years since Bayou has played or hosted a AAA school in football and the Colts showed out getting the win 41-6.

The Colts won the toss and elected to play defense the first half and on the Cougars first possession the Colts force a fumble and Andrew Rogers gets his first fumble recovery of the night.  Pilgrim would keep the ball on a quarterback keeper and take the ball in the end zone and Kovac would get the two-point conversion and Bayou would take the lead 8-0.  The Colt’s defense set the tone for the night and forces the Cougars to punt and Kovac would break out for a touchdown.  The PAT would be no good and the Colts put six more points on the board to take the lead 14-0. The Cougars have the ball on their own 5-yard line and the Colts defense forces a fumble in the end zone and extend their lead to 20-0.  On the Cougar’s next possession the miscue’s keep coming for the road team as another bad snap sends the ball sailing for Andrew Rogers to get his second fumble recovery of the night for the Colts but they can not capitalize and are forced to turn the ball over on downs.  Disaster struck for the Cougars again with a bad snap and Rogers comes up with his third fumble recovery of the night to end the first quarter 20-0 Bayou.

In the second quarter, Bayou would find the end zone twice as Kovac hits the right side line for a 15-yard touchdown and the two-point conversion from Pilgrim would be good and the Colts extend their lead 28-0 and Pilgrim would find the promise land on a 20-yard touchdown to give Bayou a 34-0 lead.  The Cougars would have one final chance before halftime to get points on the board but Weber Herbison would come up with the pass interception to end the half with the Colts ahead 34-0.

To start the second, the Colts would receive the ball and on the first play fumble the ball and give the ball back to the Cougars on the 25 yard line but Andrew Rogers gets a sack on the quarterback on first down and on second down recovers his fourth fumble recovery of the night. The Colts would get the ball back but could not get points on the board but Hillcrest would get their only touchdown of the night in the third quarter and Bayou’s William Hood would answer and the Colts extend their lead 41-6 and get the win after a scoreless fourth quarter.

Hunter Kovac led the offensive explosion on the ground with 17 carries for 161 yards for two touchdowns, followed by Caleb Pilgrim with seven carries for 101 yards and two touchdowns, William Hood with three carries for 46 yards and one touchdown, and Davis Dalton with eight carries for 66 yards.   

On the receiving end, Cole Hutchinson had one reception for 10 yards and Kovac with one catch for four yards.  Most of the Colts plays were on the ground with 374 yards of ground game.

On defense, Andrew Rogers led the defense with four fumble recoveries and a fifth fumble recovery for a touchdown and three quarterback sacks.  Hunter Kovac aided with nine tackles, William Hood with eight tackles, Dalton, Pilgrim, Christian Collins, Tyler Kitchings, David Marlow all with five tackles each.

“Our boys played with a lot of heart and played some good hard nose football.  Our seniors played ‘their’ game with character and heart,” added head coach Terry King.

King, a former coach and teacher at Hillcrest commented on playing his former school. “It was an emotional game and their team wanted to win as much as our team did.  I have a special relationship with the senior boys from Hillcrest and it was a very emotional game.”

“We showed a lot of heart playing a AAA team.  We showed our A conference is a tough conference and we play a different brand of football.  I don’t think they expected us to be that physical,” added King.

The results of Friday night’s actions have the Colts at No. 3 in the playoff system and a road game next Friday night at Benton Academy.  Game time is set for 7pm.