Abbeville’s rally falls short against Tigers

ST. MARTINVILLE - Abbeville’s five-game win streak to start the 2021 football season ended Thursday night as the Wildcats fell to St. Martinville Senior High in the District 6-3A opener for both teams.
But the Wildcats didn’t go down without a fight until, literally, the very end of the game.
Abbeville had two possessions on the St. Martinville side of the field in the last two minutes of the contest and at one point came within inches of pulling off the come-from-behind win. Still, both times the Tigers were able to thwart the challenge and come away with the 27-24 win knocking AHS to 5-1 overall and 0-1 in the district.”
“Our kids fought to the bitter end and fought like men. They fought to the last second when we had a pass hit us in the hands in the end zone/ I’m so proud of my kids that I want to cry, but I can’t because I don’t want them to. This may not have been a playoff game, but it was a playoff atmosphere.”
Down 27-12 at halftime, Abbeville rallied Down 27-12 at halftime, Abbeville rallied with two second-half touchdowns to pull within 27-24 with under 10 minutes left.
The Wildcats had two drives in the final minutes with a shot at scoring the game-winning touchdown and had it as Jaysen Shelvin’s pass into the endzone fell through the receiver\’s hands on the last gasp fourth downplay, and Abbeville suffered its first loss of the season.
“The difference in the game was mistakes,” Moy said. “We have some stuff to clean up. We’re not there yet. They’ve been there before, and we have some work to do.”
The game featured four touchdowns and four lead changes in the opening seven minutes of the contest.
Senior Blake Saddler again provided many of the fireworks for Abbeville.
He had two kickoff returns for touchdowns, and he ran for 174 yards, including a 76-yard touchdown run, and totaled more than 300 all-purpose yards for the Wildcats.
“We were talking for a week about nothing but 48 minutes,” Moy said. “All of our kids showed up Sunday to practice for this game because we knew we had a chance.”
Saddler gave them that chance.
The senior returned the opening kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown and then when SMSH took a 7-6 lead, he produced another kickoff 75 yards for a score to give Abbeville the lead at 12-7 in the first quarter.
Before Abbeville ran a single offensive play, Saddler had two touchdowns and the Wildcats had the lead twice. But after that 12-7 lead, St. Martinville scored 21 unanswered points to take a 27-12 lead going into halftime. In the end, it proved too much to come back from despite a rally in the second half.
Part of the mistakes that Moy talked about was an interception return for a score during that 21 point SMSH run and a missed touchdown chance in the second quarter on another interception.
In the third quarter, Saddler added a third touchdown to bring Abbeville back to within 27-18, and a Chad Nolan touchdown run in the fourth brought the Wildcats back to 27-24, setting up the last-minute attempts at pulling off the win.
After suffering its first loss of the season, Moy now has to get the team ready for another district game Friday when Crowley comes to town.
“I feel sorry for Crowley,” Moy said. “We’re going to come back angry. We know that we have some stuff to fix. But, we’re going to come back hungry and ready to start a new streak.”
Stats from the game:
Blake Saddler (14-174 TD), Jaysen Shelvin (9-32)Tyrese Willis (5-12) and Adam Nichols (1-4)

Receiving: Saddler 2-30, Chad Nolan 1-4 TD, Rylan Regan 1-4.

Passing: Shelvin 4/13, 38 yards, 1TD/2INT