Acadiana didn’t blink Friday at a halftime deficit to rival Carencro with its season on the line.
The Wreckin’ Rams’ entire season has been a rebound from early adversity, flipping an 0-3 start into seven straight wins, a District 3-5A championship and home playoff game.
And they responded in similarly impressive fashion against the Bears with a dominant third quarter to win, 29-21, and advance to face St. Augustine in the second round of the Division-I Select bracket.
“When you go 0-3, all you can do is overcome adversity, and that’s something we’ve been learning all year is just having to overcome adversity,” versatile junior athlete Collin DiBetta said. “And I feel like we did a really good job of that throughout this year and even throughout this game. We were down at the half and found a way to come back. I think we had two unanswered scores, and after that, we didn’t let up.”
No. 14 Acadiana (8-3) opened the second half with a 62-yard go-ahead march punctuated by DiBetta throwing a strike to senior running back Dion Simon wheeling out to the 26-yard touchdown and 15-14 lead.
The Wreckin’ Rams forced the No. 19 Golden Bears (6-5) into quick three-and-outs and cashed shorter fields into additional end zone trips — a goal-line by Simon and a 27-yard DiBetta dash — to blow open a 29-14 advantage and begin tightening their grip early in the fourth.
“Just let’s go out there and play our brand of football,” first-year Acadiana coach Doug Dotson said of the halftime message. ” We deferred, so we got the ball, which was good, and we went down there and scored, and that kinda set the tone. The defense, two weeks in a row, it’s hard to play somebody and play at that level, but I thought that we certainly rose to the occasion.”
Senior defensive back Keyon Ledet intercepted a fourth-quarter heave toward the goal line, and the Rams didn’t allow Carencro to score again until 2:48 remaining.
When sophomore quarterback Carson Gurzi found senior Kendrick Bernard for an 11-yard touchdown to cap an 83-yard drive and pull back within 29-21, Acadiana senior Ty Lamartina slid down to recover the ensuing onside kick.
The Bears managed a defensive stop to keep alive a sliver of comeback hope. But the Rams pinned Carencro back into working out of the end zone and under a swarm of pressure, including seniors Jackson Hilts and Taveian Landry getting to Gurzi early to throw the possession immediately out of rhythm.
“We started winning (up front) and had the QB scrambling all the time and had him running the ball when we wanted him to and not getting the passes off,” said LSU-committed senior defensive lineman Darryus McKinley. “Even though they were playing dirty and holding and all that, but we still got to the QB, we still did what we had to do.”
The game marked the third time in four years in which the playoff bracket has provided a rematch of the nearby rivals and the first time in back-to-back weeks after Acadiana won this year’s de facto district title game, 21-14, on the same field a week earlier.
Carencro tried to throw an immediate misdirection at its familiar foe with a jet-sweep reverse with two blockers working to keep McKinley at bay to allow the play to develop.
But the Rams were all over the play with senior defensive back Gavin Hisaw crashing off the edge to lead a swarm of green jerseys from every direction to force an attempted throw-away to the sideline.
Only the ball hung in bounds just long enough for Acadiana senior wide receiver Travis Gallien, one of the Rams’ key three-phase athletes, to corral and toe-tap an interception for an immediate splash play.
“It was big,” Gallien said. “All practice, coach had been telling me to watch it, watch the trick plays, they were gonna throw something. And when they did it the first round, I read it and I picked it off.”
The Bears’ defense managed to limit the damage to a 42-yard Josh Marquez field goal and 3-0 Acadiana lead.
And Carencro managed to maintain an edge much of the rest of the half, led by a strong defensive effort and highlight-reel plays in all three phases by Nicholls State-committed senior star Chantz Babineaux.
The Bears took a 7-3 lead with a 69-yard explosive play down the left sideline after Gurzi managed to roll left out of pressure and find Babineaux with enough separation deep from a pair of defenders to haul in the sideline catch and accelerate away for the score.
A short kickoff and good DiBetta return set up Acadiana near midfield on its way to an eventual Lamartina goal-line answer to pull back ahead, 9-7.
But Carencro struck right back with Babineaux and Gurzi leading a long drive all the way to a 15-yard throw-and-catch from the young quarterback to fellow sophomore Brandon “B.J.” Duffy Jr. for a 14-9 advantage the Bears would take into the break after a Babineaux interception and Hayden Monroe sack helped lead a strong defensive close to the half.
The Wreckin’ Rams leaned on their months of lessons in toughness and resilience, though, and returned to the field firing on all cylinders to open the third.
Acadiana has now won five straight against Carencro since a 2022 second-round game and has won at least one playoff game every year since 2005.
