MCHS falls to Assumption

Assumption High wanted to leave no doubt who was the best team in District 7-4A this season.
It wrapped up the outright district championship with a 36-3 win against Morgan City Thursday at Mustang Stadium. It was their first district title since 2011.
With the district title wrapped up, Assumption (9-1 overall, 5-0 in district, ranked No. 6 in latest unofficial Class 4A state power ratings) will host a first-round playoff game next week. They will make the playoffs for first time since 2012.
Assumption coach Anthony Paine said winning the district and getting a playoff berth is a special honor.
“I’m proud of my guys for winning a district championship,” Paine said. “We’re only one of 10 teams in school history to do it. I’m extremely happy for the kids. They worked hard for it. Winning the district was not essentially a goal we had set out for us at the beginning of the season. We wanted to just make the playoffs, but the opportunity arose through their play, and they deserve it.”
Despite the lopsided victory, the game had a scary moment at the beginning of the final quarter when Morgan City senior quarterback Abram Hartley injured his neck after being tackled following a short run.
On the play, Hartley got wrapped up and another guy hit him, and Hartley’s neck was bent forward on the play, Morgan City Coach Scott Tregle said.
Hartley, who completed 4-of-16 passes for 69 yards, spent nearly 20 minutes down on the field while being tended to by medical personnel. He was later carried off the field on stretcher.
Tregle said Hartley was talking and moving while being attended to on the field, and he was taken away by ambulance as a precaution. Tregle said
Hartley wanted to walk off the field but was told not to as a precaution.
“Hopefully he’s (Hartley) going to be good,” Tregle said after the game. “We said a prayer for him after the game. He’s one of our seniors that’s leaving. He’s been the quarterback the last two years. I just hate to see it happen in his last game.”
Tregle confirmed this morning that the CT scan showed no fractures in Hartley’s neck, just a neck sprain.
He said this morning that at the time of the injury, athletic trainers didn’t think anything was broken, saying it was a precautionary move to bring him to
the hospital to be checked out.
Tregle noted that Hartley wanted to finish the game.
“He was more upset by not being able to finish his last game,” Tregle said.
The neck injury was the second in as many weeks for Morgan City involving a player as Scott Comeaux fractured the sixth vertebrae in his neck a week ago in the fourth quarter against Vandebilt Catholic.
As for Thursday’s game, Assumption senior quarterback Daron Williams wasted no time in putting it on Morgan City. He capped an eight-play, 76-yard drive with a six-yard touchdown run with 7:29 left in the first quarter.
After a 27-yard pass to Zyshawn Richard, Williams (eight carries for 68 yards rushing; 1-of-4 for 27 yards passing) pushed his way up the middle on a 15-yard touchdown run to make it 14-0 Mustangs with 4:44 left in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, junior running back Melvin Young took the spotlight, running for touchdowns of 37 and 56 yards, respectively, to put the Mustangs ahead 27-0. Williams tossed the 2-point conversion pass to Dillon Hebert, putting Assumption ahead 29-0 with 6:42 remaining in the second quarter.
Young, who led the Mustangs with 173 yards on 12 carries, said they wanted to take care of business early and often against Morgan City.
Assumption’s offense had 441 offensive yards (414 rushing, 27 passing, 19 first downs).
“We were just able to move the ball and keep pushing,” Young said. “Execution is very important. We got to our blocks, made our reads right and scored touchdowns. We wanted to get this game over early so we can get ready for next week.”
Morgan City had three possessions in Assumption territory during the first half but came away with two turnovers on downs and forced to punt on the other.
Assumption’s defense smothered the Tigers all night. Morgan City finished with 119 yards (50 passing, 69 rushing, 10 first downs), and most of its yards came late in the game when the score was out of reach.
“Assumption just plays physical,” Morgan City coach Scott Tregle said. “They have a lot of speed in all aspects — defense, offense, special teams. Our kids tried hard. We just couldn’t get it into the end zone. We had trouble scoring all through district. We got a real young team. We’ve got nine seniors that are leaving, so we’ve got a lot to build on.”
Mustangs senior linebacker Beau Samanie said the defense wanted to highlight an outright district championship victory with a stellar performance. Assumption honored its large senior class before the game.
“It’s amazing,” Samanie said. “This is everything I could ever wish for in my senior year. We came out and did our thing. I really don’t know what to say. It was an awesome game. We did all our responsibilities on defense. Our defense was really on point this week. We practice hard for it.”
In the third quarter, Richard (seven carries, 90 yards) took an option pitch from Williams and darted five yards into the end zone to push the lead to 36-0 with 4:54 to go in the third quarter.
Morgan City kicker Miguel Perez booted a 37-yard field goal with 4:22 left to end the game’s scoring.
Trey Derouen led Morgan City (4-6 overall, 0-5 in district) in rushing with five carries for 47 yards, and Kalen Hillen caught a pass for 33 yards.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Singleton is a staff writer for the Houma Courier and Thibodaux Daily Comet. Additional reporting by The Daily Review Sports Editor Geoff Stoute

MCHS AHS
First Down 10 19
Yards Rushing 50 414
Yards Passing 69 27
Total Yards 119 441
Passes (C-A-I) 4-18-0 1-4-0
Punts-avg. 6-26.5 2-17.5
Fumbles-Lost 1-0 3-2
Penalties-yards 1-11 13-102

Scoring Summary
MCHS 0 0 0 3
AHS 14 15 7 0

First Quarter
AHS: Daron Williams 6-yd. run (Amree Albdnassar kick)

AHS: Williams 15-yard run (Albdnassar kick)

Second Quarter
AHS: Melvin Young 37-yard run. (Albdnassar kick)

AHS: Young 56-yard run. (Darron Williams pass to Dillon Hebert)

Third Quarter
AHS: Zyshawn Richard 5-yd. run (Albdnassar kick)

Fourth Quarter
MCHS: Miguel Perez 37-yard field goal

MCHS Individual Stats
Rushing
Trey Derouen, 5-37 yds.; Kalen Hillen, 2-22 yds; Chris Gant, 3-18 yds; Kedrick Scott, 7-15 yds; Ethan Scioneaux, 6-8 yds; Malik Phillips, 3-(-1) yds.; Taaj Daniels, 1-(-6) yds.; Abram Hartley, 7-(-43) yds.

Passing
Abram Hartley, 4-16-0, 69 yds.; Isaiah Escort, 0-2-0

Receiving
Kalen Hillen, 1-33 yds.; Malik Phillips, 2-27 yds.; Makye Richard, 1-9 yds.