Lavalais' carrer night carries Marksville to win
By Philip Timothy | For The Town Talk
MARKSVILLE – Nick Lavalais was a man on a mission Friday night.
The senior tailback rushed for a career-high 247 yards on 40 carries and two touchdowns, leading the Marksville Tigers to a solid 28-21 non-district win over St. Louis.
With the victory the Tigers improved to 4-1 heading into next week's District 3-3A showdown with Buckeye. The loss, the third in a row this season, dropped St. Louis to 1-4 on the season.
Lavalais, who was filling in for an injured Mark Eldridge, was told before the game by coach J.T. Dunbar that he would be carrying the load for the Marksville ground attack
"Coach told me before the game that I would be toting the mail. He told me to run hard and secure the ball," Lavalais said. "My line did a great (job), and I just read off my blocks and kept my feet moving. I didn't even realize I had gotten that many yards."
With Lavalais' career night, Marksville finished with 397 total yards offensively while giving up 315 yards defensively.
Asked afterwards if was tired, Lavalais said, "No sir, I could go some more."
With Lavalais leading the charge the Tigers scored the first three times they touched the football and built a seemingly insurmountable 20-0 lead before St. Louis finally got on the board thanks to a 61-yard reception and run by junior Colby Rodriguez.
The speedy Rodriguez had a pretty good night offensively himself as he finished with 122 yards receiving on four catches and another 90 yards rushing on 12 carries. He also two scored a pair of touchdowns on the night.
Marksville had an opportunity to score one more time before the first half ended; however, a penalty and a crucial sack of Qway Mingo stopped them up short as time ran out in the first half.
"We continue to hurt ourselves with silly penalties and little mistakes as hard as we work on it in practice we are still making mistakes which could cost us later in the season" Dunbar said. "Had we scored right before halftime, we could have gone up three touchdowns, which would have provided us with a nice cushion that would have been tough to overcome."
Even though Marksville didn't score as the first half ended, the Tigers made up for it to open the second half by scoring their fourth touchdown — a 29-yard run by Mingo — and after Mingo converted on the 2-point conversion found themselves leading 28-7.
The Saints, who are coached by former St. Mary's coach Charlie Cryer, refused to roll over and quit and answered the Tigers' touchdown with one of their own 43 seconds later as Rodriguez, showing his brilliant speed, broke free for a 53-yard TD run, which got St. Louis back into the ball game.
"I have been telling the kids we just need to play for four quarters," Cryer said. "I am proud of the way they didn't quit and hung in there tonight. They kept fighting. We just need a break to get over the hump. I thought or defense did a much better job against Lavalais in the second half as we stopped Marksville on five straight possessions."
While the Saints' offense finally started to click, it wasn't until there were 39 seconds left in the game St. Louis finally scored its third score when Dylan Greeman punched it into the end zone from the one. After recovering the onside kick, St. Louis got the ball down to 32 of Marksville. With time running out, Greeman scrambled 21 yards but came up 11 yards short as he was tackled and time ran out.
"St. Louis is young but they are very competitive," Dunbar said. "I told the kids that their record is not indicative of how good they are. With that said, I am proud of the way these guys responded tonight. I really like our intensity out there."
"We played hard," Dunbar said. "We just need to clean up our mistakes and we will be all right. This was a good win for us tonight."