Acadiana Battles Ponchatoula In Huge Playoff Matchup – Game Preview

(Tonight’s game can be heard over the air in the Acadiana are on ESPN1420 on the am dial, espn1420.com and the free smart phone app RadioPup.  Pregame begins at 6:02 Kickoff follows at 7:00)

A special game preview, from the voice of the Wreckin’ Rams, James P. Bitterman

The Acadiana Wreckin' Rams opened the 2014 5A State Playoffs in impressive fashion last Friday night, defeating St. Amant 37-0.

The Wreckin Rams scored touchdowns on all four first half possessions, never looking in their rearview mirror as the Terrible Turks limited St. Amant to 114 yards of total offense.

Offensively, the Veer Machine did it's part with 38 minutes of time of possession and 356 yards rushing on 53 attempts for an average of 6.7 yards per attempt.

This week, Acadiana travels to Ponchatoula to take on the Green Wave who come in to the game with an undefeated 11-0 record, the first perfect record at Ponchatoula since 1952.

Ponchatoula is explosive offensively, led by quarterback Christian Campbell, a Georgia Tech commitment.  On the season Campbell has 1,205 yards rushing, 18 touchdowns rushing, 815 yards passing and 11 touchdowns through the air.

Ponchatoula has a plethora of weapons who can score from anywhere on the field.  Last week, Brian Rogers, who played freshmen ball at AHS, took the opening kickoff back 78 yards to the house.

The Green Wave are a veteran team with 24 seniors, all of whom are looking to avenge last year's 49-7 second round loss to the Wreckin Rams. Ponchatoula returns 8 starters on the offensive side of the ball and 6 on the defensive side of the ball from a year ago.

Defesively, Ponchatoula is led by defensive end Reggie Walker. His brother Robert was a standout at Mississippi State.

Lastly, the Green Wave is very sound in the kicking game with senior kicker Aaron Malik, who has connected on 7 field goals and 55 extra points.

The Wreckin' Rams will have their work cut out for them this week.  The Rams will likely need to weather an initial storm, as a large and raucous crowd is expected to be on hand for Ponchatoula.

This match up features two of the top coaches in the state squaring off.  Ponchatoula is led by Coach Hank Tierney, who has a record of 252-89-0. His winning percentage of .739 ranks 13th all time in the State of LA.  Coach Tierney is also 20th all time in overall wins, and has a State Championship to his credit in 1987.

For Acadiana, Coach Davidson sports an on field record of 112-26, a winning percentage of .812.  He would rank 5th all time in win percentage if he was in the 200 win club.
Pregame starts at 6:02 p.m. with kickoff following at 7:00 p.m.   The game can be heard over the air on ESPN1420 in Lafayette, on the internet at espn1420.com, and on smart phone app RadioPup.

The winner of this game will play the winner of Mandeville at Barbe.  If Barbe is victorious the winner of Acadiana vs Ponchatoula will be at home nextweek. If Mandeville is victorious, they will host next week's game regardless of tonight's matchup.