Acadiana Battles Ponchatoula – Game Preview

This is a game preview, written by the voice of the Wreckin’ Rams, James P. Bitterman.

The Acadiana Wreckin Rams opened defense of their 2013 and 2014 State Championships with a 49-0 win over the Northside Vikings.

Ground and pound was the order of the night; as the Wreckin Rams rolled up 337 yards rushing; led by Ziggy Francis, 7 rushes for 145 yards and a touchdown, and Jayrin Wilson, 5 carries for 92 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Tonight, the Rams return to the sight, in my opinion, of one of the two best wins I've witnessed. (The other was at Barbe in the quarterfinals in 2013.)

Last year in The Swamp, in the second round of the State Playoffs, the Wreckin Rams faced a tremendously talented Ponchatoula team that brought a perfect 11-0 record in to the game. With Kevin Moore making only his third start at quarterback, the Wreckin Rams did what they do, using their running game to generate 291 yards, while they threw for 114 yards and a touchdown.

How much respect did Acadiana have for Ponchatoula? On the drive right before halftime that started at the AHS five yard line, the Coaches came to the joint decision to go for it on 4th and 1 from the Rams 14 yard line and then again on the same drive on 4th down from around their own 35 they went for it and picked up another first down. Two of the most gutsy calls in the annals of AHS football. Also, give last year's defense a lot of credit as they held a very potent Ponchatoula team to 301 total yards and 28 points.

The Wave have shown that the loss of 16 starters have not deterred them, as they have rolled to a 41-7 win in the jamboree over Springfield, and a 35-7 win over Jewel Sumner in their season opener. In the win over Jewel Sumner the Wave score on 5 of their first 6 possessions.

The Wave are led by senior quarterback Jeb Kraft who has been running the Ponchatoula offense since the eighth grade. He got plenty of playing time last year as Ponchatoula steam rolled opponents; Also a factor for the Wave is LSU verbal commitment Donavaughn Campbell, Christian Campbell's (last year's quarterback who now plays at Georgia Tech), little brother

Another thing that AHS can count on is the Wave will be well coached. Ponchatoula is led by Coach Hank Tierney who sports an impressive resume with a record of 253-90-0, a winning percentage of .738 that ranks 13th all time in the State of LA. Coach Tierney is also 20th all time in terms of wins, and has a State Championship to his credit in 1987.

The pre game show starts at 6:02 p.m. and kick off is at 7:00 p.m. The game can be heard in the Acadiana are on ESPN1420 on the am radio dial, as well as espn1420.com, and the free smart phone app RadioPup.