Erath defense delivers when needed

ERATH - Offense, offense, and more offense. That is what usually comes up when one talks about the Erath Bobcats football team.
It is common to hear things like, “That Lynkon Romero kid can throw the football.”
“Who is Erath’s best receiver?”
Seldom does one talk about the Erath defense. The defense never gets mentioned because they have been giving up a lot of points each game. Yet, despite that, the Bobcats continue to win.
They have now won four straight, including Friday night’s 35-24 thriller against the Kaplan Pirates.
As usual, Romero and the offense did their part by scoring points. He threw for 218 yards and four touchdowns.
The EHS defense, however, came up with big plays when the game was on the line.
Three big defensive plays proved to be the difference in the game. All three occurred in the second half. They either resulted in a touchdown, or they stopped a touchdown.
The biggest defensive play of the game occurred with 2:51 left in the game. Erath sophomore cornerback Blake Dautreuil, who kept getting beat on the same screen pass thrown by Kaplan all night, decided he was going to stop it.
The Pirates went to the well too many times because Dautreuil stepped in front of Kaplan quarterback Grant Campbell’s short pass and ran it back 80 yards for a touchdown.
That TD gave Erath (5-1) needed insurance points with a 35-24 lead. Before the TD, EHS led 29-23.
It also got Dautreuil out of the dog house with the defensive coaches.
“They kept running the same play over and over,” said Dautreuil. “I just jumped it. I took it to the house. When I caught it, I saw the quarterback trying to catch me, but I knew I was burning him.”
Bobcats head coach Eric Leblanc admitted to getting on Dautreuil earlier in the game for not being in the position to take that play away.
“Blake is a young kid. I mean he is only a sophomore,” EHS head coach Eric Leblanc said. “I think he had read it great either the second to last time they ran it or the third to last time they ran it, but he tripped over the tight end. But in the end, they reran it, and he made the play. That was a big play.”
Erath’s second defensive big play occurred with eight minutes to play in the game.
The Pirates were driving the football and were down to the Bobcats’ six-yard line. On fourth down and goal from the six, Campbell pitched it to Kaplan’s Caden Campisi. He tried to string it to the outside, but cornerback Brett Suire stayed with him and stopped him for no gain, giving the football to Erath.
Suire said, “As a cornerback, my job on that play was to watch the edge. I had to make sure he (Campisi) did not get into the endzone. We stopped Kaplan for three straight downs. I did not want to give up the score.”
On the play, Suire said the best way to stop Campisi was to go low, which he did.
“When I saw he fell, I was pumped up. It was a big point in the game,” he said.
The Bobcats went ahead for good late in the third period when Romero threw a 9-yard TD pass to Coy Broussard. Broussard finished with three catches for 69 yards and three touchdowns.
The third biggest defensive play for EHS occurred a minute into the fourth period.
On a third down and 10, back on the Kaplan 26-yard line, Erath sophomore defensive lineman Ryan Fobbs had a huge sack that put the Pirates back to their 16-yard line and forced a punt.
The Bobcats took up shop on the Kaplan 42 yard line. On the next play, Romero completed a 43-yard touchdown pass to Broussard and put Erath ahead, 29-17, with 10:25 to play in the game.