Injury-plagued Berwick to travel to face Abbeville

Berwick High School will enter its week 2 matchup against Abbeville High battling the injury bug.
The Panthers will be down a quarterback as Collin Louviere will be out this week. Center Blake Bergeron and guard Gavin Barrilleaux along the offensive line are also out, Berwick High coach Craig Brodie said. Barrilleaux also starts at linebacker.
Louviere will be out “at least another week” after suffering a concussion, Brodie said Wednesday, attributing it to late hits he said the quarterback received — and Morgan City was flagged for — during the Panthers’ 26-7 week 1 loss.
“I think they had four or five … roughing the passer (penalties), so they were definitely targeting him. He got hit several times with the opposing guy’s head, helmet-to-helmet stuff.”
Brodie said “another time, after he threw it, they cut him at the legs.”
Morgan City coach Scott Tregle said today in response to the targeting accusation, “That’s a definite false statement. We had one high hit (to the head) on the quarterback, and they called a personal foul on it.”
Tregle, who said his team had another hit to the chest of Berwick’s quarterback, said his team was instructed in proper tackling techniques after the flags began being thrown and had been instructed “since day 1” to tackle properly.
Tregle called Brodie’s remarks a “direct insult to me and our program.”
As for the injuries on the offensive line, Brodie will turn to two freshmen to fill those holes.
“It’s hard to throw ’em in there like that, but ya gotta do (what) ya gotta do,” Brodie said.
Mitchell Sanford, who split time with Louviere a week ago, will get the start at quarterback this week for the Panthers. A week ago, he completed 8 of 24 passes for 103 yards and one touchdown, a 22-yard pass to Cody Roberie.
As for last week’s loss, Brodie did credit Morgan City’s defense for putting pressure on Berwick, who had a sophomore quarterback and running back.
He also noted the man-to-man coverage by bigger defenders from Morgan City, Lloyd Singleton and Makye Richard, on Berwick receivers Kenan Jones and Audwin Williams gave them problems.
“Normally, that’s something we look forward to with the type of guys we got, but it’s hard to get the ball to them when people are in the quarterback’s face as much as they were,” Brodie said. “They did a good job. We set up several screens and over through it and there’s some that we could have made that would have been big plays if we’d have made the completion.”
Those things coupled with injuries on the line made for a tough night for the Panthers.
A week ago, Jones led the Panthers’ receivers with three catches for 46 yards, while Joshua Carver had two catches for 39 yards and Roberie, two receptions for 34 yards.
Defensively, Brodie said his squad played well enough for Berwick to stay in the game.
As for this week, Berwick will travel to face an Abbeville squad that has not had a lot of success in recent years, Brodie said.
The squad has a new football coach, Gary Adkins, who came to the school at the end of July.
While this year’s team defeated North Vermilion in their jamboree contest, they fell to Kaplan 44-7 in week 1.
“It’s hard to tell where they’re at,” Brodie said. “We’ve watched them on field. They have some good athletes.”
Offensively, Abbeville runs a veer-option from the Wing T and they run other things, too, Brodie said.
“They’re a running team,” he said. “They’re not going to throw the ball a whole lot. We just got to be disciplined. Play assignment defense.”
Defensively, the Wildcats run a 4-2-5 defense. Brodie said Berwick hopes they can attack the defense.
Friday’s game will be played at James Williams Junior High.
By GEOFF STOUTE
gstoute@daily-review.com