Championship thoughts: 4A Shaw can't match Bastrop
Going into Saturday's 4A final between Bastrop and Shaw, I wondered if the Eagles had peaked too soon. In the first three playoff games, Shaw played near flawless football, smoothly getting past Istrouma, Belle Chasse and Eunice by an average of 20 points.
But in the semifinal against O.P. Walker, the Eagles were stuffed for most of the night, and had to rely on the defense to win the game. Additionally, the Chargers moved the ball at will against Shaw. Credit Shaw's defense, though, for coming up with stops when it had to.
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MVP
Bastrop's Randall Mackey took this, and deservedly so. Few other players on the field had the presence that Mackey had. Teammate Reuben Randle certainly made himself known during the game, finishing with four catches for 135 yards and a touchdown.
But it was Mackey who dominated, rushing for 139 yards and passing for another 259. His touchdown run, slicing through and past Shaw defenders at warp speed, gave proof to the theory that he plays on a whole different level from most players.
Game thoughts
I'm sure Shaw's injury trouble throughout the season didn't help the Eagles, but Bastrop pretty much did anything it wanted to in Saturday's game.
It would be easy to focus on Shaw's inability to stop Bastrop, but that wasn't the sole reason for the loss. No, the defeat was a complete breakdown of the defense and the offense. In fact, the offense didn't hit positive total yards for good until midway through the third quarter. The Eagles weren't in the black until Andrew Starkey hit Paul Davis for a 14-yard gain on third-and-10.
Shaw's offense didn't run more than five plays until that series, when it ran six for 24 yards. Bastrop, meanwhile, had scoring drives of one, nine, one, three, zero and six plays (the zero coming on a fumble return in the third quarter).
After each team had the ball once, I thought the game could end up being the best of the weekend. I had seen Shaw several times throughout the season, and I knew what it was capable of doing. But I hadn't seen Bastrop, and now I know what I was missing. On the Rams' second possession, Mackey went around right end for a 50-yard touchdown.
I had no doubt from that point on that Bastrop would win the game. Not once this year had I seen Shaw give up a touchdown of the sort.
But Shaw's defense wouldn't have been in position to have to continually stop Bastrop if the offense would have been able to hold onto the ball. Again, the Rams were unlike any 4A team I had seen Shaw play against. Most of the year, I saw Shaw dominate the line of scrimmage. Saturday, Bastrop abused and used the Eagles line.
The only real bright spot for Shaw was punter Derek Jambon, a senior. He punted eight times for an average of 43.6 yards. That's an average that would have been good for second in the SEC. Punting is punting, and that's pretty darn good. He also had a long of 58 in the game, which would have tied him for fourth longest in the SEC this year by one of the league's top five punters.
Jambon absolutely deserved the MVP award.
Perspective
Don't take anything away from Shaw. It deserved to reach the finals. And who knows, maybe if some of the players that were injured had still been playing, the final could have been closer.
But going 14-0 to reach the final is something to be proud of. Few teams do that. In fact, only Bastrop, Parkview and Destrehan finished 15-0, and only those two teams plus Shaw, Parkview Baptist and Westlake made it to the Dome unscathed. Of all the teams that play high school football in Louisiana, most would love to be in the position Shaw was in.
The fact is, what the Eagles did was special. It's something Starkey and Steffon Gray and Christian D'Aquin and Christian Lacey and a total of 80 Shaw athletes will remember forever, playing in the Dome in high school.
Head coach Scott Bairnsfather knows where his team stands. He said after the game the team will have to get stronger. For Shaw to continue to make a run at the state championship, that's a must. I have no doubt that Bairnsfather will do what he can to get his players over the hump.
Your thoughts
OK, I've told you what I think about this one. Now I want to hear your thoughts. Did Jambon deserve the Shaw MVP honor? Was Mackey alone too much for Shaw to handle? What happened to Shaw's vaunted defense? Can the Eagles get back to the Dome next year?
Tell me what you think. Comment below, or email me at bhandwerger@wwltv.com
Posted by Bradley Handwerger 
at 1:55 PM | Permalink
| Comments (2)
I know the athletes that are going to fill the positions that the shaw senoirs are going to leave. They will just as good if not better.
Shaw has two good running backs, the offense line will always be good, especially with a 320 pound senoir dominating the line.
The dline will also be replace wih strong athletes that will no doubt get sacks and stop the run.
Also the coaching will not change and the only thing that can come from the loss to bastrop is experience and the coaches correcting the problems.
This will only allow for the shaw team to get better and no doubt will back at the dome next year.
Jambon is a good punter/kicker but Scott Fabre had 15 tackles including 3 for loss. He's the district M.V.P. How does he get overlooked. The kicker is kind of like the D.H. They're not on the field all the time, or even most of the time for that matter. The kid from acadiana deserved it last year. He kicked the game winner!!!!!