By Dan McDonald (Special to Acadiana Postgame)

LAFAYETTE -- Acadiana and Lafayette High do a lot of similar thigns offensively, so it came as no surprise that defense dominated the annual rivalry between Acadiana High and Lafayette High Friday night at Mighty Lion Stadium.
Acadiana’s defense was just more dominant.
The Rams held the host Lions to only one first down in the game’s first 32 minutes and used that effort – and some short fields – to post a 26-7 win in their District 3-5A contest.
Acadiana scored three offensive touchdowns, and only had to drive a combined 101 yards to quarterback Myles Hutchinson’s two short scoring runs and a clinching score from backup running back Brian Lebon.
“We had a bunch of short fields,” said Acadiana coach Ted Davidson. “It’s a good thing we did because they (Lafayette High) played great defense against us and took a lot of our stuff away from us. We had to really scratch and claw for everything we got.”
Neither team topped the 200-yard mark in total offense, but the Rams (5-2, 4-0) took advantage of those opportunities and kept the Lions bottled up for much of the game. Lafayette High didn’t start a drive outside its own 37-yard-line until late in the third quarter, and twice in the game the Lions (2-5, 0-3) had to start drives inside their own five-yard-line.
“We put our offense in too many bad positions,” said LHS coach Jay Domengeaux.
Still, it was a 14-0 game for most of a second half that turned into a turnover trade. Neither team had a turnover in a first half when Acadiana led 7-0, but there were six turnovers in a stretch of just over nine minutes mostly in the final quarter.
The Lions had four of those turnovers in that stretch, and the final two helped Acadiana break the game open. Lafayette High quarterback Dwight Youngblood was sacked and fumbled near midfield with 8:30 left, Malik George getting his second fumble recovery of the final quarter at the LHS 38.
Acadiana methodically drove those 38 yards and Lebon capped the drive with a one-yard burst to make it 20-0 with only 4:14 left.
On second down after the ensuing kickoff, the last of that turnover spree turned into Jayrin Wilson’s second interception return for a touchdown this year. He stepped in front of Youngblood’s deep pass at the Ram 30 and returned it 70 yards for a clinching score.
Wilson was shut out of the end zone offensively despite rushing for 89 hard-earned yards, one week after he had touchdown runs of 80 and 64 yards on his first two carries one week earlier in a 50-11 win over Comeaux.
“He found a way to get it in the end zone,” Davidson said. “We’re starting to play Acadiana style defense. We had to do that because this is a big rivalry and we knew they were going to come out and get after us.”
The Rams didn’t take long to take a 7-0 lead, using a short LHS punt and grinding out 37 yards on 14 plays on their first possession. Hutchinson went the final yard for a 7-0 lead with 3:30 left in the first period, and that was all of the first half scoring as the Rams drove to the LHS 35, 4 and 29 on their other first-half possessions but came up short on two fourth-down plays.
Acadiana doubled that lead, though, with a quick-strike score to start the second half. Jordan Dickerson’s 46-yard return on an attempted pooch kickoff put the Rams in business at the LHS 26 and Hutchinson capped that short drive with a two-yard touchdown run just over two minutes into the half.
Both quarterbacks struggled in the aerial game, with Hutchinson finishing two-of-nine for 11 yards and Youngblood hitting only three of nine passes for 18 yards. Youngblood did get one of those into the end zone, though, hitting Jaelyn Price with a 10-yard touchdown pass on the game’s final play.
“This is two teams that are very familiar with what each other does,” Davidson said of both team’s offensive struggles. “When you practice against yourself every day in the spring, in the fall, that’s what you expect. We just played really well on defense tonight.”
Lion running backs Trevin Kelly and Trey Davis, who had teamed for over 300 rush yards in LHS’ narrow 33-30 loss to Barbe the previous Friday, finished with 90 and 58 yards respectively. In all, Acadiana took a narrow 190-186 advantage in total offense.
Acadiana 26, Lafayette High 7
Acadiana              7              0              7              12           --            26
Comeaux             0              0              0              7              --             7
First Quarter
ACAD -- Myles Hutchinson 1 run (Jacob Judice kick)
Third Quarter
ACAD -- Hutchinson 2 run (Judice kick)
Fourth Quarter
ACAD -- Brian Lebon 1 run (kick failed)
ACAD -- Jayrin Wilson 70 interception return (kick failed)
LHS -- Jaelyn Price 10 pass from Dwight Youngblood (Lane Perrin kick)
                                            ACAD     LHS
First downs                         15             10
Rushing Yards                  51-179    39-168
Passing Yards                      11           18
Total Yards                          190         186
Comp-Att-Int                       2-9-0       3-9-1
Punts-Avg.                         3-40.7     6-21.7
Fumbles-Lost                       4-2          5-3
Penalties-Yards                  4-50        8-59
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING -- ACAD: Jayrin Wilson 17-89, Myles Hutchinson 19-50 2 TD, Brian Lebon 6-20 1 TD, Bralen Trahan 7-17, Ziggy Francis 1-3, Javonte Edmond 1-0. LHS: Trevin kelly 18-90, Trey Davis 14-58, James Brown 2-16, Dwight Youngblood 5-4.
PASSING -- ACAD: Hutchinson 2-9-0, 11 yds. LHS: Youngblood 3-9-1, 18 yds., 1 TD.
RECEIVING -- ACAD: Javonis Issac 2-11. LHS: Jaelyn Price 2-10 1 TD, Archie Ducote 1-8.
Records: ACAD 5-2, 4-0; LHS 2-5 0-3. Next: Acadiana hosts Sam Houston Friday, Lafayette High at Sulphur Friday.

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