Collision course

LOREAUVILLE -- All season long two Teche Area players have been on a collision course.

Friday night, the much anticipated head-to-head meeting will take place at Loreauville High school when LHS running back B.J. Greene locks up with Jeanerette running back Anthony Williams.

The District 6-2A battle between the two local teams was already set to be one of the more important football games this year as both teams are battling for a shot at the district championship but what makes it more interesting is that it is the matchup between two of the top offensive players in the state, something that is normally not seen in a regular season game.

“Two of the top backs in the state in the same district. Two teams about 15 miles apart,” said JSH coach Terry Washington. “This is going to be a great game and if I wasn’t a coach, just a fan, I’d would want to come out and watch this because it’s going to be a great game Friday night.”

Not the least of which is the brewing battle between Greene and Williams, both of whom have been in the top 20 in the state in rushing all year.

Jeanerette’s Williams, who already has a 301 yard effort against West St. Mary earlier this year, had been averaging right at 200 yards per game before being shut down by Opelousas Catholic last week. Even after nine weeks of the season, he is still averaging 183 yards per outing.

Loreauville’s Greene has rushed for 1,196 yards this year (133 per game) despite missing one game due to injury, and parts of several others because the Tigers had big leads and head coach Trent Delahoussaye didn’t want to overuse his star back. Even only playing the first half against Hanson earlier this year, Green still amassed 290 yards.

Both single game efforts are in the top 20 in the state this year.

“I think that’s what a lot of people want to see, the two backs on the same field,” said Delahoussaye. “Williams is a power back and their line comes off the ball well.

“Hopefully B.J. is up to the challenge and we’ve been on him all week that this is the first time that he will face a back that has more yards than him. He probably could have had more yards this year if we would have needed him to play in those games where we took him out early. He might be right up there with Williams.”

Both players are scoring machines as well.

Green has scored 19 touchdowns for Loreauville this year. Williams has 18 touchdowns and 10 2-point conversions to his credit.

“There’s a little more involved in this game that just the game itself,” said Washington. “Besides the game and the battle, there’s still a chance that the winner wins a share of the district title depending on what happens between Port Barre and Opelousas Catholic.”

Surprisingly, it’s not so much the individual battle that drives both backs. The two are more concerned about helping their respective teams win and improve the seeding in the playoffs which begin next week.

“To me I’m just going to play the game,” said Williams. “I’m not worried about him versus me or back against back. I just want to play the game because I love the game.”

“It’s just competition to me,” said Greene. “I’m going to try to do better than him. But I’m more rooting for my defense to stop him, which I know they will.

“I really haven’t been watching what he has been doing this year. I just bring my game and play the best I can for Loreauville. It’s definitely going to be a challenge. They are going to do their best to beat us and we’re going to do our best to beat them.”