By Ron Brocato
There is no easing themselves into a football season for the Brother Martin Crusaders.
Last season they started with a road game against East Ascension that would go into the Division I non-select schools playoffs and prevailed against the No. 12 playoff seed. And on Friday, Sept. 4, Coach Mark Bonis' team will be in Lafayette to continue the crusade against No. 10-ranked Southside, a team that won two Division I playoff games before losing eventual state champion Ruston (38-28) a season ago. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.
The game is the first of three consecutive games in which the Crusaders are designated as the “visitor” before they get into their District 9-5A schedule. And Bonis is cautiously optimistic about the outcome following the team’s successful jamboree debut a week ago against the 2025 select Division II runner-up, Archbishop Shaw.
Southside, which opened in 2017 in the burgh of Youngsville in South Lafayette, is a formidable foe, warns Bonis. The Sharks opened the Louisiana Sports Writers Association’s Top 20 rankings this week as the No. 10 team in Class 5A, and for good reason, said Bonis while finalizing the team’s game plan for Friday.
“They run the option offense from a double slot and they have answers for how a defense tries to play them. So we will have to be disciplined on defense and tackle very well. On defense, they man you up and try to wreak havoc.
“They have returned a lot of players, and Coach Jess Curtis expects to make another deep run in the playoffs. So this will be a good early test because they are very big and very fast.”
Bonis pointed out that the Sharks pose match-up problems for their opponents, noting, “You don’t see a double slot option offense a whole bunch. A defense has to be more one-on-one, rather than trying to depend on the entire defense. When you’re playing a spread or a pro-style offense, you’re able to rally everyone to the football.”
That’s not so against an option team. “You have to be assignment sound,” he continued, “You can’t have everybody going to the football. If you do, that’s when they hit you with a big play.”
Bonis and his staff are confronting all the “what ifs” they might encounter.
“For their base offense, we’ll have several answers, but we’ll have to have great communication with the coaches upstairs so we know when to stay with what we’re doing or to have to make adjustments when they become necessary.”
Preparing the defense for this unique style of play poses another preparation challenge, Bonis said.
“You have a scout team that’s not used to running this style of offense, and trying to mimic what you’re going to see on a Friday night, when they don’t know how to mimic that. So it may take a drive or two to get accustomed to what they’re doing.
“The concerns are both giving up the big play or not being able to get the defense off the field because their offense is able to go three-to-four yards on every play. You may think you have a good plan, but you can’t replicate their speed on Friday night.”
But the Crusaders have their own brand of firepower on offense with which the Sharks will have to contend. And it will be more of an open-style that they present themselves. The result of the jamboree mini-game last week was positive, Bonis said.
“We came away feeling good about a lot of things we did, but there are things we need to fix, things we worked on this week. But the guys are playing for each other and lift each other.
Brother Martin will visit St. Paul’s on Sept. 11, then end its pre-district campaign against former district rival Warren Easton on Sept. 18.
