In his 35th season as a coach, Carencro’s Tony Courville led this Golden Bears team to an 8-2 regular season record and head into the second round of the playoffs to play a long-time rival.
The Carencro Golden Bears started the season 8-0, defeating teams such as the Barbe Buccaneers, Southside Sharks, Lafayette Mighty Lions, and Sam Houston Broncos. The final two games of the regular season didn’t go as planned on the road as they fell to the Acadiana High Wreckin’ Rams on a last-minute 39-yard touchdown 27-26 and lost a shootout to the Shaw Eagles 57-50.
Despite the two losses, Carencro earned themselves the nine seed in the Division I – Select playoffs. The Golden Bears’ first-round matchup was against Pineville Rebels and went into that game determined and focused as they won 57-7. With their most recent victory, coach Courville’s squad looks to get their revenge against Acadiana this Friday.
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Question: What have you learned about your team from the start of the season until now?
Answer: One word that comes to mind is grit. They were their tails off on a daily basis and they push each other to be the best. I would say this is a gritty football team.
Q: What did you and your team see on film that allowed this team to have the blowout win against Pineville last Friday?
A: At the start of the week, we wanted to take care of ourselves. We went to Shaw and didn’t play very well and that’s on us. We made mistakes in that game and you can’t do that against good teams. We came back on Monday and took care of ourselves, and then on Tuesday we started to prepare for what Pineville does. A lot of what they do we’ve seen before so it was almost second nature as far as installs defensively so that was good. It was also a desire to win since it had been two weeks since we last won so we wanted to get that nasty taste out of our mouths.
Q: Are there any advantages to playing your rival for the second time in a few weeks after you were the losing team?
A: I don’t know about that. First of all, I think it’s pretty difficult since we’re in a really good football district. We’ve all got good coaches and teams, not to mention the division itself. Division I – Select is ranked the 10th best bracket in the country so that says a lot. Ideally, once you get into the second and third rounds of the playoffs you’re going to face some dogs and it just so happens to be Acadiana. Obviously, we’d like to be on the opposite side of the bracket or a little farther down in the playoffs because eventually, we’ll have to play each other. To answer your question, I don’t know. I think we have to go out to prepare ourselves like we always do, stay true to our process, and go out there and find out.
Q: What challenges are presented when you go on the road in the playoffs and face a high-quality team like Acadiana?
A: Thankfully, it’s only about a 20-minute ride away, so it’s not too bad. We did it two weeks ago but it’ll be a different atmosphere with the playoffs on the line. We talk about WAR. Win, advance, repeat. We’re trying to play 48 minutes to the best of our ability so we get ourselves another opportunity to play 48 minutes and I’m sure Acadiana is going to have a lot to say about that but I really like how we’re preparing for this week and I’m looking forward to it.
Q: What will it take for this team to get its revenge against the Wreckin’ Rams on Friday?
A: For us to beat Acadiana, we will have to be elite at all three phases.
This revenge game between the Carencro Golden Bears and Acadiana High Wreckin’ Rams will be played on Friday, November 17th. Kickoff is set for 7:00 p.m. and the action can be heard on Z105.9 and MeTV 97.7 FM 1330 AM.