Bonnabel allowed an 80-yard touchdown on Thursday’s first play from scrimmage and then little else in a swarming, stifling performance for the program’s first playoff win since 1997.
The No. 18 Bruins (8-3) held No. 14 Riverdale (8-3) without an offensive touchdown the rest of the way, took control by halftime and scored twice more late to weather a Rebels kick return in the 28-14 win.
“Everything, (it means) everything to us,” said first-year coach Andre Anthony, a former Edna Karr and LSU standout. “The year, when we started off, ‘close the gap’ was the motto. ‘Close the gap,’ and we’ve been doing that all season long. I can’t ask nothing more of these guys. They’ve been giving us effort, doing everything we ask and doing their 1% — that’s it, just do your job, do you 1%, finish and fight for the man next to year. And that’s what they did tonight.”
The victory was Bonnabel’s second in less than a week against Riverdale on the same Joe Yenni Stadium field, adding the first playoff win since 1997 to the first district title since 1998.
Senior quarterback Karl Perkins threw touchdowns to sophomore Raheem Williams in the first, second and fourth quarters, and senior running back Tyree Bruer added a late breakaway run to shut the door on the Rebels.
And the Bruins’ defense was lights out after the initial scamper by the Rebels’ senior quarterback, Lance Simmons.
Senior defensive ends Deron Hervey and Quincy Jackson raced off the edge and into the backfield for one disruptive play after another, Marvin Causey and Lyric Stewart largely wrecked the interior and linebackers and defensive backs flew around seemingly beating ball-carriers and receivers to one spot after another.
“We just talked, like just don’t let ’em get nothing else,” Hervey said. “We’ve just gotta come out there and shut ’em down.”
Bonnabel evened the score later in the quarter as Williams caught a short pass from Perkins, broke a tackle and darted to a 22-yard score, then took a 14-7 halftime lead on a 42-yard, play-action strike down the left sideline.
The District 10-5A rivals traded more defensive stops and punts than points for much of the night, but the Bruins finally cashed in their shortest field of the half — just 37 yards — into an eventual 8-yard Perkins-to-Williams slant to double the margin to 21-7 with 3:03 remaining.
“Our coaches telling us fight through it, don’t let it get in our heads and move onto the next play,” Williams said of what worked for he and his senior quarterback to make the most of their opportunities in a defensive battle. “And that’s what I did for our team, and it got us to the second round of the playoffs.”
Senior running back Byron Perrilliat popped the subsequent kickoff for another explosive Rebels score to pull back within 21-14 just seconds later.
But his counterpart, Bruer, served as Bonnabel’s closer from a nice kick return of his own into Riverdale territory to a 36-yard victory cigar, slipping by traffic on a third-and-short and accelerating away to the end zone and a ticket to the second round and the program history books.
“He’s a monster, man,” Perkins said. “All I’ve gotta do is hand him the ball and watch him run. It’s like looking at a movie. I give him the ball and he’s already 20, 30 yards down the field … Man, gotta worry about next week now. Onto the next week. Gotta take it one game at a time.”
The Bruins will continue their run, which now includes a seven-game winning streak, next week against No. 2 Teurlings Catholic (10-0) in Lafayette
