By Zachary Landry and Tyler Beaver
Last school week was shortened due to having tropical storm Gordon nearly hitting Louisiana. Many smaller rain showers were constantly moving in causing the end of the week to have sloppy weather. This was going to be an issue for the Friday night game against Covington High School. Since Holy Cross was the visiting team the amount of space was very limited for people to watch the game. This ultimately caused for a tight squeeze between the band, dance team, cheerleaders, and fans. When arriving at the game, the first thing many noticed was how wet and muddy the field was. Instantly, after kickoff the Holy Cross jerseys went from a nice bright white to a dark mud brown.
Therefore, it was going to be hard for both teams to move the ball on offense. From this, the first quarter went by scoreless with both teams having issues with offense. Both teams would put together a drive but had sloppy turnovers or stops. The Holy Cross defense was also stopping Covington very easily. This lead into the second quarter where the same issue was still occurring. However, right before half time Holy Cross was able to put together a drive that allowed for Nolan Heitmeir to kick a 28-yard field goal. This gave the Tigers a 3-0 lead going into half. It was very hard to get grip on the slippery field and a few injuries occurred because of the loss of control.
The third quarter began and eventually Holy Cross stopped Covington and Celven Hulbert was able to rush in for a touchdown. This started the Tigers confidence with having a comfortable lead. Getting closer to the fourth quarter Jackson Wallace makes a good read and intercepts the ball taking it 52 yards for a touchdown. At this point, Holy Cross was hyped, and Covington knew that they were hurting.
In the 4th quarter the Tigers still had one more score left in them. With about 8:53 seconds left in the 4th quarter Celven Hulbert rushes for a 63-yard touchdown. This would increase the lead to 23-0. After the score Nolan Heitmeir made the extra point and the tigers were up 24-0. With 14 seconds left in the game Sheldon Baham, a player from the Covington team got injured and the tigers huddled up on the Lions 15-yard line and prayed for the injured Lions player. After the 24-0 victory Nola.com interviewed Coach Guy LeCompte and he said, "We made adjustments with the field conditions, but you always have to make adjustments. We need to clean up the turnovers, but I'm proud of our guys." Once Coach Guy finished his interview the Tigers headed back to campus and did the traditional bell ringing and sang the alma mater. Great overall victory for the tigers to stay motivated throughout this long season. Go Tigers!