The game was one of missed opportunities.
Kinder’s defense was stout in the first quarter of Thursday’s season opener against St. Louis Catholic. The Yellow Jackets forced a pair of turnovers and a turnover on downs in the opening quarter but the offense converted those stops into only a single score.
Kinder’s offense never was able to get things going, and combined with a few costly defensive penalties, the Yellow Jackets came up short in a 10-7 defeat to the Saints — in a game held at St. Thomas More’s Cougar Stadium.
“It was just missed opportunities tonight,” Kinder coach Bret Fuselier said. “Our defense did a good job early of getting our offense opportunities to score and we never did anything with it. That’s something we’ve got to correct. We also had penalties and that is a sign of an undisciplined football team and we have to correct that as well.”
Kinder (0-1) started the game with a stellar play on defense.
St. Louis quarterback Cooper Miller was hit from behind as he threw and Kinder defensive lineman Brandon White picked it off and returned it all the way down to the one-yard line.
“We came in feeling good about our defense,” Fuselier said. “We were playing with a little emotion at the start of the game. I was proud by the way our defense played early.”
Kinder running back Tylan Ceasar took the ensuing handoff for the Yellow Jackets and scored the one-yard touchdown. With the made extra point, the Yellow Jackets held a 7-0 lead.
The second drive for St. Louis ended with a stop on fourth-and-one but Kinder proceeded to go three-and-out. The Yellow Jackets got a second chance on the drive though as a Saint player ran into the punter.
Kinder drove all the way to the 18-yard line but the fourth-down pass was broken up in the end zone and the Yellow Jackets came away with no points.
Kinder’s defense once again answered the call as James Roberts picked off Miller on a deep pass around midfield. The Yellow Jackets drove into the red zone but the drive would stall. Kinder settled for a 29-yard field goal attempt but the kick was no good.
The three defensive stops resulted in only seven points for Kinder.
“The turnover on downs and the missed field goal was big,” Fuselier said. “We had plenty of game to play after that but we could never get anything going after that. We’ve got to learn how to finish drives.”
Kinder’s defense continued pressuring Miller, sacking the Saints quarterback twice on the ensuing drive but the second sack proved to be a costly miscue. The Yellow Jackets were flagged for unsportsmanlike penalty and that set up a far more manageable fourth-down play. St. Louis opted to go for it on fourth down but Miller found Chase Wilson for a 17-yard completion down the right sideline.
St. Louis ended the drive with a 29-yard field goal by Jack Watson.
After a punt by Kinder, St. Louis responded by throwing the ball late in the second quarter as Miller completed five of six passes on the Saints’ next drive but a flag aided the drive. A pass interference call placed the ball in the red zone and moments later Miller hit Wilson for a 10-yard touchdown with less than 30 seconds before halftime.
“As good as the defense was there were a couple of times that we had penalties that ended up really costing us,” Fuselier said.
That score proved to be the last one of the contest as both defenses posted shut outs in the second half. Kinder had a few promising drives in the final two quarters but the Yellow Jackets were unable to put any more points on the board.
For the contest, Kinder’s defense held St. Louis to 185 yards but the offense managed just 213 yards.
“We had confidence in our defense,” St. Louis coach Chad Lavergne said. “When you have that kind of confidence in your defense you can take shots. They had to bail us out a few times in the first quarter.”
“Their defensive line did a nice job of establishing the line of scrimmage against us,” Fuselier added.
Cesar led the Yellow Jackets with 79 yards on 23 carries, while Graham Fawcett completed 8-of-19 for 84 yards and Darius Captain had four receptions for 47 yards.
Kinder will now host Opelousas Catholic who is coming off a 52-0 victory over Port Barre last Friday. Fuselier said that his team will have plenty to work on before kickoff.
“We’ve got a lot of stuff to correct,” Fuselier said. “It’s our coaching staff’s job to correct it and that’s what we will do.”
