Ascension Athletics for Feb. 16, 2017 – The Advocate

Parish wrestlers compete in LHSAA tournament

Last weekend, the Allstate Sugar Bowl LHSAA Wrestling Tournament was held at the CenturyLink Center in Bossier City.

In Division I, the St. Amant Gators finished in sixth place with 161.0 points. The East Ascension Spartans finished ninth with 130.5 points and the Dutchtown Griffins came in at No. 23 with 36.5 points.

Three parish wrestlers made it to the finals. In the 126-pound weight class, Brier Babin, of St. Amant, placed second as he lost the final match to Jared Thieler, of St. Pauls, in a 9-3 decision. The 182-pound class final featured two parish wrestlers: Sage Nugent, of St. Amant, took on Sidney Mitchell, of East Ascension, and won the state title in an 8-4 decision.

When the game started in Dutchtown on Friday night, the East Ascension Spartans were still undefeated in 5-5A district play, but you couldnt tell it by the way the Griffins started off.

The Griffin defense was the factor early on and stifled the Spartan offense, keeping the score low and close in the first quarter. The Spartans offense picked it up a little in the second quarter, but the Griffins still kept it close with the score 42-38 in the fourth quarter.

The Spartans (23-6, 8-0) finally pulled away from the Griffins (16-11, 3-5) in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter and finished with the 55-42 win to stay undefeated in district play.

Spartan guard Jimel London led all scorers with 13 points and LeAaron Cain added 10 points, but the surprise of the game was Justin Harris and Cameron Wire combined for 23 points, six rebounds and two blocked shots. Shedrick Smith finished with 8 points.

Neil Caldwell and Brumfield led the Griffins with 8 points each.

The Lady Spartans basketball team finished the season with two impressive wins over St. Amant 68-28 and Dutchtown 76-39. Head coach Dennis Chandler said he hopes his team will ride the wave into the playoffs as the Spartans finish 23-1, 10-0 in district play and a 22-game win streak. EAs only loss was at the start of the season (second game) to A.J. Ellender from Houma in tournament play.

East Ascension has six seniors on the team but relies on its bench as well, with some sophomores and freshmen who are well-equipped to contribute to the team effort.

In a close contest, East Iberville handed the Ascension Catholic boys a 62-60 defeat on Feb. 7. East Iberville's offense was too much for the Bulldogs to handle and went into halftime down 40-19. The Bulldogs mounted an impressive second-half comeback by outscoring the Tigers 31-22 but came up 2 points short.

Jacoby Stewart led the Bulldogs with 20 points, while Kebori Hunter tossed in 18, Jamill Truxillo scored 9, Jamar Barber 7, Kevin Gautreau 3 and Jevon Yarbrough 3.

The Bulldogs dropped another close one on Feb. 10 when they lost to St. John 43-45.

After holding a slim 18-17 halftime lead, the Donaldsonville Tigers ripped off a 21-point third quarter that paved the way for their 57-52 win over the Parkview Baptist Eagles on Feb. 7. Jacoby Simon led all scorers with 29 points. Terry Holmes added 8, Ladarius Jackson threw in 7, Dwayne Johnson scored 5, JaCoby Smith scored 4, and J. Williams and E. Wilson scored 2 each.

The Tigers lost to University Lab School 54-92 on Feb. 10.

The Donaldsonville Lady Tigers played the Lady Eagles pretty close for three quarters, trailing 26-23 at halftime and 43-36 at the end of three quarters. Parkview blew things open in the fourth quarter and outscored Donaldsonville 31-12 and went on to a 73-50 victory.

It took a while, but after a regulation game, one overtime period and some extra time, the St. Amant Gators overcame the Denham Springs Yellow Jackets and came away with a 3-2 win. The win advances the Gator soccer team to the quarterfinals in the state tournament.

St. Amant opened up the scoring and took the lead in the seventh minute when Briggs Bourgeois sent in his trademark long throw to Caleb Cretini, who struck a header into the goal. After what seemed like an eternity with plenty of physical play, Denham Springs tied the match in the 66th minute when Cameron Hamby hit a header from a corner kick.

The eighth-seeded Gators took the lead again in the first overtime period when Matt Parker scored in the 96th minute. It took only a minute for the ninth-seeded Yellow Jackets to tie the game when a long ball got by the Gators into the net.

In the second overtime, Bourgeois made another long throw in and Parker did it again with another header, winning the game for St. Amant and sending the team into the quarterfinals of the Division I playoffs for the first time since 2011.

St. Amant will have played three-time defending state champion and No. 1 seed St. Pauls by press time in the next round.

Registration for the West Ascension Youth Baseball and Softball has begun and will run through April 1. League play runs April through early June for boys and girls ages 4 to 15. Forms can be downloaded by going to ascensionparish.net and clicking on "Departments" then "Recreation."

The league play in Donaldsonville will consist of T-ball (4 to 5 years old), machine pitch (6 to 8 years old), kid pitch (9 to 10, 11 to 12 and 13 to 15 years old). Registration forms will be sent home through area schools. Call Director Troy LeBoeuf at (225) 715-7389.

The temptation is great to start this column off with, Man, springtime is here because of the mild weather we are having, but it is only the second week of February. Theres a good possibility that we still have some cold weather in the works, but its going to be hard to turn things back as far as fishing is concerned. So its time for a State of the Pier address.

About three weeks ago, I went to one of the spots where dipping crawfish is usually good. I made a few rakes with my net to see how the crop might be going and found plenty of crawfish, but alas, they were small, too small to fish with, so back in the water they went.

Fast forward three weeks and I tried a different spot and they had grown quite nicely. Most were big enough for catching bream (which is one of my favorite ways to catch them) and a few were big enough to use for catfish. This was just about a perfect combination: a warm weekend and just the right bait to spend a day on my pier and give the crawfish a try.

I baited up the three rods I keep on the pier on a recent Thursday night to get a little head start and went to bed in anticipation of catching a few fish, especially the bream to have a fish fry.

The good thing about this kind of fishing is that you dont need to be in a big hurry. My sweetheart and wife of 38 years made us some coffee after getting up about 6:30, and we sat around sipping our hot beverages and enjoyed some conversation around the Food Channel and Fox News. About 7:30, I headed down to the pier and started my day on the dock.

Before we get started with the actual fish catching, lets talk about how easy it is to do this. First comes the bait. You can go to a big-box store or tackle shop and buy an affordable dipping net. Then you have to find a location to catch the crawfish.

They are in ditches, but you have to find the ones that hold some water just about year-round and have some type of vegetation. Try a few different spots until you find them. A few dips is all it takes to find out if theyre there.

In late winter, the adult crawfish have had their little ones in the ground. When the days start getting longer, they venture out into the ditches and start to feed and hence grow. Once they get too big for panfish, they can be used for catfish or other bigger fish. But when they are small, just about anything eats them. Just think about how much you like to eat crawfish. Theres no wonder why fish love to eat them, too.

Next comes the setup: A cane pole or small spinning or spin cast rod and reel will do. Fishing on the bottom is my most productive technique this time of year. Tie a No. 4 or No. 6 hook on the end of the line and put a small split shot weight about 4 inches above the hook. The slower the fall the better, so use as small a sinker as you can to make sure the presentation is slow. The water is still cold this time of year, so the fish arent quite as active as when the water is warm.

Insert the hook at the tail end of the crawfish and thread it up to the head. Let the bait down to the bottom and slightly pop it up 5 or 6 inches and let it slowly sink back down every 10 seconds or so. The bite could come as a slight tap you feel, but usually they hit it on the fall, so paying attention to the line for any type of movement is important. Sometimes the weight and bait just stops falling. Set the hook if there is any doubt.

When the line was baited up and dropped into the water, the action didnt start right away. Ive found it takes about five to 10 minutes for a fish to find your bait and hit it. Sure enough, about five minutes in, the first bream got hooked. It was too small, so back in the water it went.

But that started the process. When one fish bites, it scatters scent from the crawfish it tries to eat, so that draws other fish. They also come to see what the commotion is all about. Theyre kind of curious, just like people. Sure enough, it all started to happen. I caught another and then another. The process repeated itself every time I quit fishing and went inside. When I returned, the same scenario repeated itself.

So, how did things turn out? Not too shabby. I finished catching over 60 bream, keeping 27. One bass fell victim to the crawfish, one sac-a-lait and 17 catfish hit the live box. Some of the catfish came on the rods I had set out, but most of them were caught on my spinning rod and baby crawfish, including the biggest one, a 3-pound channel catfish. So, the State of the Pier is pretty good.

On Feb. 11, the second of three Bass Nation High School qualifying bass tournaments was held on the Calcasieu River. Eight Ascension Parish teams competed, and four of the teams finished in the top 50 for the event that featured 124 teams of anglers. Awards were given to the top 15 teams that took part in the event.

Sam Bergeron and Andres Barletta fished the event and placed seventh, bringing in five bass that weighed in at 8.95 pounds. The team also had a 3.26-pound big bass. Finishing in 14th place was the team of Cade Fortenberry and Brennan Paxton. The two anglers also weighed in five keeper bass for a total of 7.21 pounds.

John White and Connor Kuriger weighed four for 5.70 pounds and a 26th place finish, while Bryce Schexnaydre and Kade Duplantis weighed 4.31 pounds and 40th place. Grant Bourque and Ethan Smart weighed 3.38 pounds and finished 50th.

The top two teams might not have won the event, but their two combined finishes in the first two tournaments have them one and two in the total standings. Bergeron and Barletta are on top of the standings, while Fortenberry and Paxton are only 6 points behind. The final high school qualifier will be held out Bayou Segnette on March 25.

If the boys can hold their spots through the next event, the top two teams qualify for the National High School Tournament on Kentucky Lake through the qualifiers. Also, the top two finishers from state tournament head to the nationals. Good luck to the two teams.

Lyle Johnson covers sports for The Ascension Advocate. He can be contacted at reelman@eatel.net or ascension@theadvocate.com.

View original post here:

Ascension Athletics for Feb. 16, 2017 - The Advocate