Ponchatoula notches first win under new head coach Trey Willie

PONCHATOULA, La. (WVUE) - A new era for the Ponchatoula Green Wave (1-1) is underway.

There were expected growing pains for Ponchatoula since former head coach Hank Tierney departed in the offseason for a second stint at Shaw. The Green Wave, however, stood their ground on the defensive side of the ball last Friday (Sept. 9) to notch a week 2 win over Dutchtown 10-7, the first under head coach and former Southeastern starting quarterback Trey Willie.

“As a coaching staff, we are proud of how our players responded to adversity,” Willie said postgame. “Everyone in our program from coaches to players decided on Monday to put in a little extra at Practice and I thought it paid off this week. "

Dutchtown was held to 88 yards of total offense which included 78 on the ground and 10 in the air.

Blake Hodges led the Green Wave defense with 8 tackles and 1 sack.

In the low-scoring affair, Dutchtown had an opportunity to tie up the game with a field goal with 9:17 left in the game from 40 yards out but it was blocked and recovered by Jordan Winter. After forcing the Green Wave to punt, Dutchtown had one last chance to go ahead with 3 minutes left. Albert Smith had different ideas as he came up with a sack on a third down, setting it up for Ponchatoula to take over on downs after a 4th down stop.

As the game was dictated by both teams’ defenses, it was defensive lineman Tyler Bailey that scored Ponchatoula’s only touchdown of the night when he intercepted a pass and returned it 22 yards for the score with 3:42 on the clock in the third quarter.

Ponchatoula’s first got on the board with a 22-yard field goal made by junior kicker Ethan Lauricella.

**John Beadle contributed to this report.

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