Jennings advances
Published 8:21 am Saturday, November 15, 2014
JENNINGS — The Jennings Bulldogs jumped on the Miller-McCoy Lions early and it was enough to take a 31-12 victory in the Class 3A bi-district round of the state playoffs.
The 11th-seeded Bulldogs (8-3) will travel to play North Vermilion in the regional round of playoffs. The Vikings were 24-20 upset winners over Buckeye.
The Bulldogs’ Travis Etienne finished with 205 rushing yards with 190 of those coming in the first half. Jacob Soileau followed with 72 yards on 12 carries.
“Travis Etienne had a great game and was fabulous,” said Jennings coach Rusty Phelps. “I thought our backs ran hard. Against this defense we were very undersized with nine or 10 guys in the box most of the night. We were just trying to find a little something to keep pecking away.”
“We came out and hitting on all cylinders,” Phelps said. “They made some adjustments to our outside veer in the second half and they kind of had us in a tough situation. We had some turnovers in the third quarter when I thought we could put them away.
“I’m proud of the coaching staff and kids and very proud of moving onto the second round.”
Miller-McCoy was led by Melvin Johnson, who finished with 138 passing yards and 71 rushing yards. Gardner added 83 yards on 8 carries.
The Bulldogs defense stopped an early drive by the Warriors at the Jennings 2-yard line. The Bulldogs answered on their second offensive play when Etienne scored on an 82-yard run to take an early 7-0 lead.
The Bulldogs scored on a short field when Soileau scored on a 19-yard run to take a 14-0 lead with 4:30 to play in the first quarter. The short field was the result of a blocked punt.
Miller-McCoy answered with a 17-yard run by Thomas Gardner to trail 14-6.
Kaleb Chaisson scored on a 1-yard run to give Jennings a 21-6 advantage with 5 seconds remaining in the quarter.
Etienne scored his second touchdown of the first half when he scored on a 79-yard touchdown run to take a 28-6 lead. A 37-yard Seth Cox field goal gave the Bulldogs a 31-6 lead.
The Lions scored the only points of the second half on a 26-yard fumble return by Antoine Thomas.
The Bulldogs had chances to score inside the Lions 20-yard line on several occasions, but three lost fumbles killed the drives.
The Bulldogs defense forced three interceptions in the second half.
Kirk Meche
