Time To Celebrate: North Vermilion advances to Class 4A semifinals

The North Vermilion Patriots celebrated Saturday afternoon after the the North Vermilion Patriots qualified for the semifinal finals of the Class 4A playoffs.
The Patriots (31-7) beat Franklinton (25-7) in two straight game. On Friday, NV won --- in Game 1 and then beat Franklinton 15-7 in Game 2 on Saturday.
The Patriots, who are are the third seeded team, advances to the next round to No. 7 battle South Terrebonne (21-9). The game is at 10 a.m. on Thursday in Sulphur.
The game will be played on Field 40 at McMurry Park.
Tickets can be purchased only on the LHSAA website. (lhssa.org).
The winner of that game plays Saturday at 6 p.m. the finals.
This will be North Vermilion’s third time in the semifinals in the school’s 40-year history. The last time they went, however, was in 1993 and 1994. North Vermilion won the Class 2A state title in 1993 and then reached the finals again in 1994.
So it has been 27 years since the Patriots reached the final four and it will be the first time North Vermilion head coach Jeremy Trahan, who has been the head coach for 14 years.
“It feels great,” Trahan said. “We’ve been working to do this as a program for a while. During the past 14 years, we’ve been to the quarterfinals multiple times but never could break through.”
The jinx is finally over for Trahan.
He now joins former NV head coach Brent Broussard as the two coaches to take a North Vermilion team to the semifinals.
On Saturday, the Patriots fell behind 3-0 in the first inning and then crawled back into the game. Down 3-2 , NV poured on 13 runs to blow the game open.
“We know we can score,” Trahan said. “When we score, we usually score in bunches. That’s sort of what we’ve been doing. We had a big inning in the fifth and kept the momentum.”
North Vermilion scored seven runs in the top of the fifth inning, thanks to patients at the plate.
North Vermilion’s Dale Martin, John Touchet and Brandt Fontenot had three consecutive walks that scored three runs for a 6-3 lead.
Dylan Naquin ripped a 2-RBI single for a 8-3 lead.
Camden Breaux also had a RBI_walk in the same inning, to blow the game open, 9-3.
North Vermilion added six more runs in the top of the seventh inning to ice the game.
Breaux had a the big hit in the inning when he doubled home two runs but then reached third base and home plate on two consecutive Franklinton errors for a 11-6 lead.
Breaux went 1-for-3 with a double and he knocked in three runs.
North Vermilion had 10 hits.
Dylan Naquin was 2-for-4 (2 RBI), Jordan Blanchard (2-for-4) and Cooper David (2-for-4) had multiple hits.
John Touchet (10-0) had a big game on the hill. Touchet, son of Nick Touchet member of the 1993 state championship team) pitched all seven innings, only gave up one earned one. He struck out four and walked two.
Also, in the seventh inning he smashed a three-RBI home run.