Patriots treating this week like playoff game

LEROY — This week’s home game against Northside may not be a must-win contest for the North Vermilion High football team, but the Patriots are treating it that way.
North Vermilion is 2-5 on the year but all but one of its losses has been by 7 points or less. The Patriots are 29th in the current, unofficial power points in non-select Division II, meaning they need to make up one spot by season’s end to earn a playoff bid for the second straight year.
“We’ve been competitive all year, and we’re looking for the same thing this Friday,” North Vermilion head coach Joe Heintz said. “Hopefully we’re competitive and we find a way to pull out the victory.
“We’re kind of treating this as a playoff game for us. We’re seeded 29. We’re one out. We’re looking from the outside in right now. But a win Friday night definitely pushes us into the playoff picture, and without saying it’s a must-win, it’s a must-win for us Friday night.”
The Patriots are tantalizingly close right now because they’ve been competitive with just about everyone on the schedule.
“What’s really frustrating is, we look at our season right now, and we’ve got four losses, all within 7 points or less,” Heintz said. “We’re close to being 6-1 right now, and we’re also close to being 1-6. It’s a crazy season, I guess.”
The Patriots have two 4-point losses (18-14 to Kaplan and 22-18 to Abbeville), a 7-point loss (17-10 to Loreauville) and last week’s 6-point loss to Westgate (16-13). Their first win was a 23-15, triple-overtime win at Erath in week 2.
But because of the strength of their schedule, the Patriots have a shot at earning a playoff bid again. Abbeville and Kaplan are 17th and 18th, respectively, in non-select Division 4, and Loreauville is 12th in non-select Division III.
Then there’s the district slate. St. Thomas More (7-0) is first in select Division II, and Lafayette Christian (6-1) is second. Teurlings Catholic (5-2) is fifth in select Division II and Northside (3-4) is 15th in select Division II.
The Patriots had a chance to upset Westgate this past week. The Tigers (6-1) have been ranked in the top 10 in the Class 4A polls all season, and are currently 15th in the Division I non-select power rankings. Yet North Vermilion chopped a 19-0 Westgate lead in the second half to 19-13 with a long scoring drive capped by a touchdown pass from Logan Thompson to Myles Garrett, then got a pick-six from James Higginbotham on the next series.
The Pats had two more possessions but couldn’t do anything with the ball, Heintz said.
“Defensively, Westgate’s still got a good defensive team,” he said. “Offensively they’re kind of searching right now with their (starting) quarterback being shut down (with injury). We went into the game knowing that they would have to run the football. We did the best we could to take away the run and make them one dimensional.
“At the end of the day, a couple of more plays and we have a chance to win the game.”
North Vermilion trailed 13-0 at halftime because it could not consistently move the ball, the coach said.
“In the first half offensively, we were just so inconsistent,” Heintz said. “We’d go good play, bad play, good play, bad play. We couldn’t get anything consistently going on offense.”
Heintz said Norris Benoit did a good job on offense against Westgate.
“He rushed the ball a bunch of times last week, and almost every time he touches the ball, it’s positive yardage for us,” the coach said. “Defensively, I thought we played really well. Kind of like most of the season. Our defense has been pretty good all year, except for the St. Thomas More game. I thought they showed up last week again and played their hearts out on defense.
“I thought offensively we’re playing hard, and we’ve got good schemes, we’re just physically outmatched in a lot of these games in district right now.”
The Patriots are looking for that consistency this week with a home game against Northside at 7 p.m. on Friday.
“(They’re) much improved,” Heintz said. “They have a new coaching staff over there. They’ve got the kids playing hard. I think they’re buying in. You can see it on film. They’re much more aggressive and they really are playing hard.
“They’re not going to do anything to fool you, but they’re just very aggressive on defense. Offensively, their quarterback is decent. He throws a good ball, and they’ve got a couple of kids who can catch it and run afterwards. Typical Northside team — they’re very athletic, but I think the biggest thing is they’re moving in the right direction over there right now. Their kids are playing hard, and they’re coached up well.”
Heintz said the Vikings try to spread opponents out and get the ball to their athletes in space. Defensively, Northside runs a 3-4 and is aggressive up front, and tackles well.
“They’ve got some tendencies that I think we’ve picked up on pretty well,” Heintz said. “Like it is with every team in our district, we’ve got to do a good job of tackling, especially tackling in the open field.”