Four games into his football career, Rusty Trotter‘s classmates convincing him to join the sport has already paid major dividends.
The baby-faced Ascension Episcopal junior kicker, recruited to the position from the school’s soccer team, calmly stepped back onto the field with five seconds remaining Thursday and lifted a game-deciding field goal just over the outstretched hands of Jeanerette defenders to cap a thrilling, 31-30 comeback road win.
Thrilling or heartbreaking, depending on which sideline, as the Blue Gators’ 11 unanswered points stunned their favored hosts and left multiple Tigers (2-1, 0-1) visibly upset, supporting one another or even falling briefly to the turf in a playoff-like postgame snapshot befitting the teams’ hard-fought, down-to-the-wire battle.
“Both teams gave an exceptional effort tonight on both sides of the ball, so a lot of people oughta be proud of a lot of things tonight,” Ascension Episcopal coach Jay Domengeaux said. “The kids executed (the last drive) well. They never put their head down. A couple things didn’t go our way. You make a couple mistakes late in the game. Fatigue kinda sets in. But they battled back, and they got first downs when they needed it and did a good job with the clock and put themselves in position to win it at the end.”
Ascension Episcopal (2-2, 1-0) had struggled more and more as the night wore on to contain slippery and speedy Jeanerette senior running back Devine Duhon catapulting free from behind his big offensive line.
The Tigers’ explosive weapon, who lost most of last season to injury, had been the story of the night with four touchdowns — ranging from goal-line carries to an 80-yard breakaway — plus three two-point conversions and a long kickoff return into plus territory.
His fourth score, a 59-yard cut up field, slip through an arm tackle and acceleration back to the end zone, had pushed the home advantage to 30-21 with 9:07 to play and further raised doubts whether he could be stopped.
But the Blue Gators just kept chomping their way back.
Sophomore quarterback Eli Gros led a drive of about 74 yards down the field, feasting on the screen game with senior Owen LeBlanc until Gros could eventually scramble, spin and ricochet his way across the goal line for the short touchdown to pull back within 30-28 with 4:22 remaining.
“Just coach D’s magic,” smiled LeBlanc, who converted a fourth-down with a screen-and-run for 17 yards down into the red zone. “I don’t know what he sees, but I’m some tell on the defense, but just really good coaching.”
Ascension Episcopal attempted its third onside kick in as many opportunities in the second half, seeing the inability to stop Duhon and trying to instead steal a possession at some point.
Jeanerette safely recovered once again.
But, this time, the Blue Gators managed to contain the Tigers’ rushing attack, even wrapping up a big play behind the line of scrimmage and forcing a punt back with 2:16 left to work.
“Everybody sees the touchdown drives and the field goal drives and stuff like that, right?” Domengeaux said. “The defense getting the ball back, that’s the enormous thing. Pushing the fatigue aside, and you know your offense does something good, and they give ’em the ball back and give ’em an opportunity for another chance to do something good. So I’m very proud of our defense.”
Gros found sophomore Carson Collette for a leaping third-down conversion in tight coverage downfield, and the drive quickly began gaining momentum after that spark.
The quarterback found Collette again and sophomore Eli Chauvin on the drive and traded runs with LeBlanc all the way down to the 6-yard line before a final offsides penalty against Jeanerette halved that distance down to the 3 for Trotter’s decisive boot.
“Forget about my last field goal that I missed and remember my practice,” Trotter said of his thought process. “My team told me they believed in me, so I believed in myself. Nerve-racking. Exciting. Unexplainable.”
Said LeBlanc: “I never had a doubt… I was pretty relieved. It was very satisfying.”
An early interception by senior safety Austin Adams had kept Jeanerette off the board and allowed Ascension Episcopal to strike first with a touchdown pass from Gros to senior Jack Boudreaux.
The Tigers swung back with a pair of nice drives capped by Duhon touchdowns, but a barreling run through defenders by LeBlanc pulled the Blue Gators to within 16-13 at halftime.
And whether through another pair of Duhon touchdowns, an interception by Jeanerette senior Nysir Jackson, a Trotter field goal missed short or a series of unsuccessful onside kicks, Ascension Episcopal kept battling.
Gros answered Duhon’s 80-yard breakaway on the final play of the third quarter with a touchdown pass to Collette two minutes later, followed by a LeBlanc two-point run to trim the deficit back to 24-21.
Duhon was off to the races again just a couple plays later, but the Blue Gators kept finding answers on offense and eventually a pivotal one on defense as well.
“I think our coach said it best: ‘We’re all we got. We’re all we need,'” LeBlanc said. “I think we’re always ready for the next play. We know what’s coming next. We always have a level head, we’re ready for the next play and we know what we’ve got to do.”
The victory was the Blue Gators’ second fourth-quarter comeback in as many weeks after overcoming a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit at Northside in Week 3.
Ascension Episcopal has also rallied from an 0-2 start to the season to now win two straight and open District 7-1A play on the right foot by stealing a road win from a Tigers program considered among the top contenders in the Division-IV Non-Select state championship conversation.
“It’s big,” Domengeaux said. “It’s big not just being on the road, but against a really good Jeanerette team. I think they’ve still got a lot of good stuff coming ahead of them. They’ve got a lot of good ball players. They play hard. They play physical football. So this means a lot.”
