'Jacks defeat North Vermilion, 42-28

The Patterson High School Lumberjacks continued their hot streak Friday with a third straight victory, topping the North Vermilion High School Patriots, 42-28.
After starting the season 0-6, the Patterson Lumberjacks are now 3-6 and 3-2 in District 8-3A.
“The kids are just fighting,” Patterson Coach Marvin Dantzler said.
The Lumberjacks have been taking “one game at a time,” he said.
Patterson went up 14-0 in the first quarter after scoring on a Dillan Giandelone 4-yard run and a Dajon Richard 40-yard run after a fumble recovery by Danon Hue.
A roughing the punter penalty against the Lumberjacks near the end of the first quarter kept a North Vermilion drive alive and led to an 18-play, 66-yard scoring drive. Evan Dubois got in the end zone on a 1-yard run with 7:55 left in the second quarter to cut Patterson's lead to 14-7.
Giandelone also was hurt while playing defense on that drive and came out of the game.
Then, an unwelcome visit from a drone hovering about 50 feet above the field stalled the game for a couple of minutes before the unmanned craft flew away.
The brief interruption didn't keep the Lumberjacks from staying focused and increasing their lead to 21-7 before halftime, scoring on a 1-yard run by quarterback Hector Tolento with just 3 seconds left until the half. The touchdown was set up by a 36-yard pass to Khyri Harris.
In the first half, Patterson only ran 16 plays but scored 21 points.
“Tonight, we never really got in an offensive rhythm because they had the ball so long,” Dantzler said.
“So we never really did have the ball,” he said. “And when we did have the ball, we scored so quick, so we were still playing a lot of defense.”
On the Lumberjacks' first drive of the third quarter, they tried to take North Vermilion by surprise, faking a punt on fourth-and-9 with Richard trying to run the ball. But the Patriots weren't fooled, and Patterson turned the ball over on downs at its own 48.
North Vermilion took advantage of the good field position and drove down the field to score on a 4-yard run by Ryan Broussard to bring the score to 21-14 with 6:19 left in the third quarter.
Patterson answered right back, scoring on the first play of its next drive when Richard ran the ball 66 yards for a touchdown to extend its lead to 28-14.
The Patriots then used two penalties, a 22-yard pass and a 15-yard run to set up an 8-yard touchdown pass to Connor Dupuy with 11:55 remaining in the fourth quarter to close the gap to 28-21.
On Patterson's next possession, the Lumberjacks went 72 yards in 10 plays to score on a 26-yard pass to Jordan Butler from Tolento with 6:46 left in the game.
The 35-21 lead wasn't a comfortable one for Patterson, though, as North Vermilion drove 69 yards on its subsequent possession and scored on a 10-yard run by Broussard with 5:15 left in the game.
But, the Lumberjacks responded one more time when Dontre Nicholas ran 40 yards for a touchdown with 2:54 to play in the game.
A chance for North Vermilion to narrow the lead was foiled after Ramagos intercepted a pass to seal the Lumberjacks' win.
Patterson finished with 415 yards of total offense to North Vermilion's 283 yards.
Richard led the Lumberjacks with 171 rushing yards on 11 carries with two scores. Nicholas had 119 yards rushing on 17 attempts with one touchdown.
Dantzler said he was pleased with his team's effort but sees room for improvement.
The Lumberjacks “had some costly penalties that kind of killed us in the half first,” he said. Patterson's roughing the punter penalty set up a scoring drive for North Vermilion and "took a lot of time off the clock," Dantzler said. Patterson was penalized six times for 70 yards.
A holding penalty on offense also hurt one of Patterson's drives, Dantzler said.
“We've just got to clean up some of those little penalties, but, overall, the kids are playing hard,” he said. “The effort is there, and that's what I like.”
With the loss, North Vermilion dropped to 2-7 on the season and 2-4 in district.
North Vermilion coach Richard Prejean said the Patriots “got behind the eight-ball early” after losing a fumble and had a tough time putting together a drive early in the game.
The Patriots didn't tackle well defensively, but Prejean gave credit to Patterson being a really good team.
“How their record's the way it is, is beyond me,” he said. “But I know how it is. They've played a tough schedule.”
North Vermilion ran the ball better than it has all season, Prejean said.
North Vermilion will play Berwick this week, and the Panthers are another talented team Prejean expects to be a tough opponent.
The Lumberjacks control their own fate for the rest of the season, “and as long as we control our fate, we're going to keep preparing and keep getting better,” Dantzler said.
“And that's what they've done every week,” Dantzler said.
Patterson's goal is to get into the playoffs and do so healthy, Dantzler said.
But the Lumberjacks aren't looking past this week's game against Franklin, Dantzler said.
“After that, we'll be ready to play whoever we draw,” Dantzler said.