Erath, Kaplan to square off Friday night

ERATH — The Erath Bobcats are embracing the underdog role when they host Kaplan in a District 5-3A game between the two Vermilion Parish rivals, head coach Eric LeBlanc said.
Erath is 1-5 overall and 0-1 in district following a road loss to St. Martinville this past week. Kaplan is 5-1 and 1-0.
“We’re fighting for our season,” LeBlanc said. “Looking at point spread,we’re loooking like we’re severely underdogs. We’re going into it and we’re loving it in practice. We’re working like it.”
The ’Cats have had to turn to younger players in the face of mounting injuries to more experienced players, and those players are embracing their opportunities.
Already missing leading receiver Christian Pillette and a number of linemen and other starters, the Bobcats saw starting quarterback Lynkon Romero go down with an injury in the first quarter of this past week’s road game against St. Martinville.
Romero and Pillette might play this week, though the coaching staff is waiting to see how they look in practice this week.
“We’re fighting,” Erath head coach Eric LeBlanc said. “The young guys are embracing it. (At St. Martinville) it was not pretty, but the young guys are getting after it.
“We just missed too many tackles and didn’t execute some blocking assignments up front, and it kind of showed on Friday. But I think they definitely have that next-man-up mentality, because we were throwing guys all over the field on Friday. I see they’ve got that underdog mentality to where we know we’re kind of outmatched in some areas, but we’re still fighting through some things and battling out there to make it happen.”
Though football is a bunch of one-on-one matchups, LeBlanc said the game isn’t only about size and speed.
The coach said sophomore quarterback Jack Landry stepped in for Romero last week and though his stats weren’t great, he’d only played one snap in a game earlier because Romero’s helmet had come off and he had to sit out a play.
“He came in against the toughest team on our schedule and he executed as well as he could for as limited a number of varsity snaps as he’s had,” LeBlanc said. “I definitely want to make sure I give him some competitive points for that. He did a good job of coming in and taking control.”
The Bobcats return home this week to play Kaplan, which is 5-1 overall and 1-0 beat Crowley 22-13 last week.
Romero is day-to-day and went through warmups on Monday. The coaches will see how he progresses this week.
Pillette is getting back into the swing of things also, though he is not back to the point where he was before the injury, LeBlanc said.
“I think he and Lynkon are probably in the same situation right now as far as being ready to play Friday,” LeBlanc said.
Romero leads Vermilion Parish with 798 passing yards and five touchdowns despite throwing (and completing) only one pass against St. Martinville.
Mason Hebert leads the Bobcats with 188 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 45 carries. Romero has 187 yards and six touchdowns on 73 carries.
Treyvan Williams (10 catches, 154 yards) and Bo Lancon (9-148, 2 TDs) are fourth and fifth in the parish in receiving yards, with Pillette and Cameron Soirez (8-112) also ranked in the top 10.
Erath faces a Kaplan team that has had success both running and passing, led by Daylon Landry (641 yards, 6 TDs) and Jed Devoltz (410 yards, 4 TDs) leading on the ground.
“Last year they actually threw for quite a bit (against Erath), and the same thing the year before,” LeBlanc said. “It was all bad eyes and poor reads by some guys in the secondary that got us to that point.
“I think they’ve done that to a lot of teams early this year where guys are looking in the backfield and not reading their keys because they’re known to be a run-heavy team. When the secondary starts looking in the backfield or not looking at the correct keys based on scheme, they end up hitting people with some big plays. Probably the best looking player on their team is probably their tight end (Carter Petry). They’re probably going to try to get him the ball and let him be a game-changer for them.”
Landry (9-214, 2 TDs) tops in the parish in receiving yards and Petry is ninth with 93 yards on five catches with two touchdowns. Sabe David is second in the parish with 457 passing yards and five TDs.
“They’ve got some really good players on both sides of the ball,” LeBlanc said. “I feel like they’ve got a lot of guys in the right spots. They do a good job of rotating their guys on defense, too. They keep them healthy and fresh.
“I know on offense they’re going to be physical,” LeBlanc said. “They’re going to try to hit us in the mouth and try to expose some violations by our defense. We’ve got to make sure we lock in our keys on defense and be ready.”