State championships thoughts: 1A South Plaq dominates

MVP: Ridge Turner
This guy is special. He's only a junior, and though he's listed at 5-foot-10, 175 pounds, he's one of the more athletic quarterbacks I've seen in high school.

He finished with197 yards and two touchdowns on 6 of 17 passing. His one interception was a nice play by the defender early in the game. He ran for 108 yards on 13 carries, and tallied three touchdowns that way. Simply put, he had one of the most electric individual efforts in the five games.

Game thoughts
This was the first time I'd seen South Plaquemines. I was expecting an offense that wouldn't stop, and a defense that took chances because its offense was unstoppable.

And early on, I've got to say, I was severely disappointed. Turner fumbled the ball away on the team's second play. On the Hurricanes' fourth play, Turner threw an interception. Then, after SP defense held, the special teams turned the ball over right back to West St. John.

Less than four minutes in, and I was wondering if I had duped myself into thinking I'd see something amazing.

Turner provided the first glimpse into his ability and South Plaquemines' ability to not worry about turnovers soon thereafter.

On first-and-10 at the SP 44, Turner went around left end, saw a hole, cut upfield then took off to the end zone. No one was even close to him.

Despite the poor play to begin the game, SP still was tied at 8 with WSJ.

The Hurricanes scored on four of their next five possessions and really wrested control of the game on Turner's 56-yard touchdown run. West St. John just had no answers after that run.

SP held the Rams to a three-and-out only once after Turner's run in the first half, and only once in the second half. WSJ finished with nine more minutes of possession than SP; yet, had only 89 total yards to show for it. Heck, 20 of those yards came on WSJ's first possession, it's only scoring drive of the day. That means SP held WSJ to 69 yards over the final 46 1/2 minutes of the game.

The game was complete domination by SP, and on offense, by Turner. Lyle Fitte finished with 71 yards and two touchdowns for SP, but I never got the impression Fitte was the guy SP would turn to if it needed a big play.

And one thing that also stands out that didn't get much publicity after Saturday's game is the Beau Fitte - a freshman - finished with a game-high 13 tackles, of which 10 were solo. He had three sacks for 31 yards, and six total tackles for a loss. He also forced a fumble and recovered one.

The defense, by the way, had 17 tackles for a loss totaling 83 yards.

Perspective
While South Plaquemines doesn't hold a candle to Bastrop or Destrehan, mostly because the Hurricanes don't have the numbers and size to match those schools, this year's run might be one of the most impressive in the state in a long time.

I don't have the history to call it one of the top five seasons on record, but it has to be one of the top 10 or 15, I would imagine. Twice SP scored 70 or more points. Other than scoring eight points in a season-opening loss to Belle Chasse, SP scored no fewer than 33 points, and averaged 56.4 in the playoffs, when supposedly you're facing some of the best teams in the state.

And it wasn't just on offense that the team dominated. The defense held teams to an average of 5.9 points per game in the playoffs, and 11.9 points for the entire season.

So, for an entire body of work, South Plaquemines finished 13-2 - both losses coming to 4A playoff schools - and averaged 51.5 points per game and gave up only 11.9 points per game. It won by nearly 40 points.

The scary thing is that head coach Cyril Crutchfield had only six seniors this year. Coming back will be Turner, all of the Fitte brothers (Evan, Lyle and Beau), linebacker Trey Stewart, all of the Barthelemy brothers (Gregory, Mike and Felix) and a bevy of other players.

This team is built for another championship run next year.

Your thoughts
OK, I've said my piece about this impressive South Plaquemines team, season and championship game.

I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Please comment below or email me (bhandwerger@wwltv.com) with your thoughts about Ridge Turner, Lyle Fitte, this team, a special moment in the game, etc. etc. etc.