Turnovers were the story of the game as Lafayette Christian was dominated by Catholic High 38-17. The Bears from Baton Rouge scored 31 unanswered points after being down 10-7 in the first quarter.
There were fireworks, smoke and flashing lights, as the pre-game was as exciting as the hype for a pair of number one ranked teams in the state of Louisiana squared off.
Catholic scored on their first play of the game with a 54-yard touchdown pass from Daniel Beal to Shelton Sampson.
Beale completed 13 of 24 passes for 220 yards and three touchdowns, while Sampson caught four passes for 103 yards and two touchdowns for Catholic.
“The first play to Shelton, the deal was they’ve got great players, but we wanted to challenge them, because we think we’ve got very good football players, too,” Catholic coach David Simoneaux said. “We wanted to add that confidence to our guys, and we were able to make that first play.”
LCA wasted no time of their own responded with a 58-yard TD pass from JuJuan Johnson to Alonzo Ryes to open the game 7-7.
Catholic fumbled on their second drive recovered by LCA, but the Knights could only capitalize with a field goal from Jackson Priest to make it 10-7.
The Knights’ and Bears’ defenses were stout in the run game. In the first half, LCA ran for 3 yards, while Catholic had only 31 yards. On their third drive, Catholic was forced to punt, but LCA was called for roughing which extended the Bears drive ending with another Sampson TD for 16 yards.
The sequence of the game that blew the door open for Catholic was forcing LCA to punt on their next two drives with the second getting blocked by the Bears. Corey Singleton ran it in for a 1-yard score to make it 21-10 CHS.
“The kicking game has been huge for us all year long,” Simoneaux said. “I thought the blocked punt was huge.”
LCA tried to score before halftime, but the Bears defense came up big with a Joshua Robertson interception in the endzone.
It was déjà vu to start the second half, as the Knights were intercepted once again and Catholic ended the following drive with a 16-yard Singleton touchdown that made it a 28-10.
Catholic ended the third quarter recovering a fifth LCA turnover and a 44-yard catch by Lloyd Benson to go 35-10 to start the fourth.