St. Charles Catholic jumps out early, downs Donaldsonville

LAPLACE, La. – St. Charles Catholic celebrated its homecoming Friday night with a big 35-12 win over Donaldsonville Friday night.

His team also suffered another big loss.

Having already lost starting quarterback Lloyd Nash to a broken collar bone and linebacker Dellary Oubre to a torn ACL this season, St. Charles lost running back Joe Chiarella to an apparent broken ankle in early in the second quarter.

The junior, who missed much of last season to a similar injury, had only three carries on the night, two of them for touchdowns.

He was hurt as he was tackled in the end zone after scoring his second, a 12-yard run that put the Comets ahead 21-0 early in the second quarter.

The good news for the Comets is, they seem seem to have a deep bench.

While Sutton Bourgeois started for the Comets last week, this week it was Justin Dumas who got the nod. He completed only two passes but effectively directed the offense, which finished with 228 yards.

Nine different ball carriers helped the Comets rush for 191 yards, four players scored rushing touchdowns.

Narquez Jones started the scoring with a 4-yard run less than four minutes into the game, capping a 9-play, 87-yard opening drive for the Comets.

St. Charles increased its lead to 14-0 with 2:49 remaining in the first quarter after Chiarella scored on a 2-yard run.

Noah Bork scored his first career touchdown late in the second quarter on a 2-yard run and Trey Joseph added a 6-yard run in the third quarter.

The Comets’ defense, which had posted three shutouts going into Friday’s game and given up all of 35 points, allowed the Tigers only two scores, one following a muffed punt that gave Donaldsonville the ball at the Comets’ 44-yard line.

The Tigers managed only 96 yards on the ground, most of it from quarterback Jaylin Williams, who finished with 62 yards. He also was 14 of 24 for 178 yards passing with one touchdown and one interception.

Jemon Pleasant scored for the Tigers with 5:33 remaining in the second quarter, but the 2-point conversion attempt failed, leaving Donaldsonville trailing 21-6.

Williams connected with Ladarius Jackson on a 6-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter to cap the scoring.

But neither team ever was able to get into any kind of real rhythm, Friday. That’s largely because of a slew of penalty flags thrown on both squads.

The two teams combined for 31 penalties for 281 yards, not counting a few more that offset. At one point Donaldsonville had three separate penalties marked against them, which gave St. Charles a first-and-goal at the 6. Joseph scored on the next play.