St. Amant bounces back, blanks Woodlawn, 42-0
ST. AMANT — A quick-strike offense and a stout defense helped St. Amant High School blank Woodlawn 42-0 on Friday night in a District 5-5A game at The Pit.
The Gators (5-1, 1-1) scored on four consecutive first-half possessions and never looked back in bouncing back from last week’s loss to Dutchtown.
“I was pleased we responded to our first adversity of the season,” St. Amant coach David Oliver said. “I felt like we played a lot of times good enough to win last week, but we had a bad quarter, a mental lapse. I thought we put together four quarters tonight.”
The Gators racked up 312 rushing yards and 518 total yards of offense. Kirk Elisar rushed for 117 yards and accounted for three touchdowns, and Jamal Vaughn posted 94 rushing yards and a TD for St. Amant.
Cody Raffray also scored twice for SAHS, and Jacob Morales contributed a 44-yard interception return out of the end zone to stop a Woodlawn drive.
Emmanuel Stewart rushed for 60 yards on 11 carries for for Woodlawn (0-7, 0-2).
“(St. Amant) has a hell of a football team,” WHS coach Don Jones said. “They’re going to be in the hunt.
“This is only the second time in my career this has happened ... I’m one of those old-school guys that believes if you keep working and keep practicing, something good is going to happen when it’s all said and done.”
After a three-and-out on its first series, St. Amant’s offense needed just two plays to crack the scoring column on its second possession. Vaughn took a pitch from quarterback Beau Nickel and raced 43 yards for a touchdown. Trey Belleu added the extra point for the Gators, who led 7-0 with 5:21 to go in the first quarter.
St. Amant’s next drive wasn’t so quick, but it was just as impressive. The Gators marched 93 yards to take a 14-0 advantage. Trey Washington’s 1-yard TD pass to Raffray on a halfback-option play capped the series with 10:42 left in the second quarter.
SAHS’ next possession featured another jolt of big-play scoring. Elisar scampered 61 yards as the Gators took a 21-0 cushion with 7:17 remaining before halftime.
Elisar turned a short gain into a long touchdown on the following series. Nickel threw a pass to Elisar, who jumped to catch the ball around the Woodlawn 35 and carried a would-be tackler from the 1-yard line into the end zone. The 43-yard TD with 2:28 left gave St. Amant a 28-0 lead it would carry into halftime.
Elisar broke free for a 24-yard run for his third TD of the night as the Gators went up 35-0 with 4:31 to go in the third quarter.
St. Amant wrapped up the scoring on Raffray’s 19-yard TD run with 9:14 left in the game.
WHS’ Jonathan Barnes notched a 43.3-yard punting average, including punts of 61 and 58 yards. He barely missed a 55-yard field goal when his kick hit the cross bar and bounced back into the end zone on the final play of the first half. He also came up just short on a 57-yard field-goal attempt.