Carencro High football advanced to the second round of the LHSAA Class 4A state playoffs with a 35-3 home win Friday night over Salmen of Slidell.
The ninth-seeded Bears, paced by three second-half touchdowns, blew past the Spartans, seeded 24th, and got a tremendous defensive effort from coordinator Larry Breaux’s bunch in the process.
Up next for Carencro is a road date at eighth-seeded Loranger, which played in the same district as Salmen and in fact barely won a two-point ballgame over the Spartans in week nine of the regular season.
Both the Bears and Wolves finished the regular season at 8-2. Loranger moved into the Round of 16 via a definitive 42-7 opening-round win over St. Martinville.
The winner of Carencro and Loranger will almost certainly draw top-seeded Neville in the quarterfinals. After whooping Woodlawn (Baton Rouge) 44-7 in their first-round game, the Tigers will host 16-seed Assumption this Friday night.
Should the Golden Bears prevail at Loranger, just north of Hammond, Carencro would host Neville the day after Thanksgiving in a playoff rematch for the right to move on to the semifinals of Class 4A.
Another noteworthy tidbit for this week’s Carencro game: Senior quarterback Carl Randall is sitting on 15 touchdown passes this season. One more and he will tie a single-season program record currently shared by Lucas Taylor and Tyler Gaspard.
Stay tuned to Mustang 107.1 for all live broadcasts of Carencro football. This week’s call will begin at Loranger with the pregame show at 6:30 PM and a special guest joining Ben Love and Blaine Viator during the Prejean’s Halftime Show.
– Ben Love