VooDoo successfully complete first game of the year
Brian Matherne
Wednesday May 1, 2024
The returning VooDoo, an Arena Football League franchise formerly from New Orleans, has been through a lot of turmoil so far this year even before competing in their first game of the year. Back on November 3, 2023, the Louisiana VooDoo was announced as one of 16 teams in the newly resurrected AFL for the 2024 season, which would be based in Lake Charles, Louisiana. That same day, the head coach was also announced, which would be James Shiver. Shiver was a former local player from the 1998 PIFL (National Champions) and 1999 IPFL with the Louisiana Bayou Beast and coached on two teams in the NIFL, winning head coach of the year in 2005 with Montgomery Maulers. Since that time, he has coached high school football in the Acadian region of southwest Louisiana.
From that point, the VooDoo had issues with the management company running the Lake Charles Event Center, saw their game tickets release date get delayed 7 weeks, their team President of Football Operations get released, and had no access to the venue to practice during the training camp. On April 19, 2024, just 8 days before the first game at home, the VooDoo announced they would be moving to Lafayette, Louisiana to play all home games in the Blackham Coliseum on the campus of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Online game tickets for the first game were not released until the Monday before the game. With the late move being so close to the first game, all tickets at the door were only $5 (general admission). This was done to entice fans to come to the game, as there was a major festival previously scheduled in downtown Lafayette that they would be competing against for attendance.
The day before gameday for the VooDoo, their opponent, the Philadelphia Soul, was kicked out of their motel for non-payment of their bill. Only four of the Soul players flew into New Orleans for the upcoming game, as the rest of the team went home. Then on gameday, April 27, the league announced the hiring of a new head coach for the Soul, Tyrone Washington, the owner of the AAL2 Dallas Falcons indoor football team. Washington brought down his players to play as the Soul in Saturday night's game versus the VooDoo. At the same time, the proper rebound nets and frames did not arrive in time for the game, so the VooDoo coaching staff had to create four makeshift rebound nets and were hanging them all day Saturday, right up until the doors opened at 5:30 pm.
The VooDoo started off the game strong with a forced turnover that was recovered in the endzone by linebacker Kerry Starks for the very first score of the night. From that point on, the VooDoo never looked back as they were up by 33 points at halftime. Both VooDoo QB’s played in the game, in alternating quarters, with both having 2 TD passes each. Starting QB Chase Fourcade, nephew of former NFL New Orleans Saints QB John Fourcade, who is also the VooDoo’s play caller, threw for 8 of 12 for 75 yards while former LSU QB Andre Sale threw 6 of 7 for 100 yards and one INT. Fourcade hit Devin Jones for a 9 yard TD pass in the first quarter to put Louisiana up 16-0 at that point. Before and after this score, the Soul QB, Jamal Stanfield was sacked for a safety. In the second quarter, Sale throws a 29 yard pass to Brian Smith Jr. to put the VooDoo 25-0.
To start the third quarter, Sheldon Augustine returned the kickoff for a VooDoo TD. Add on another 15 yard pass from Fourcade to Carrington Thompson for a TD. Then the spark came for the Soul in two unanswered TDs, 16 yard TD run by Stanfield and a 22 yard TD pass from Stanfield to Matthew Stroud. The Voodoo finally answered back late in the 4th quarter with a Sale dime to Jacorey Sullivan of 43 yards for a TD. The VooDoo’s kicker, Cody Mandell, was a perfect 7 for 7 on extra points for the night.
The VooDoo defense did a great job holding Philadelphia to only 3 TDs in the whole game and blocking all 3 extra points, 2 blocked by Starks and another by Rob Cadwell Jr.
Coach Shiver and his staff should be commended for their hard work throughout this very difficult process that the team had to endure over the past week, much less over the last 6 months. The VooDoo’s next game is back at home in Blackham Coliseum versus the Georgia Force on May 4 at 6:30 pm CT. Tickets at the gate are scheduled to be $10 each (general admission) and free for ULL students, faculty, and staff with ULL ID.
