Analyzing the Division I bracket, Catholic High and Brother Martin lead the way

A pair of Brothers of The Sacred Heart schools are the teams to beat in Division I.

Catholic High, which won the state title a year ago and also won in 2015 and 1017 on the field before being stripped of its last two titles, is the top seed and the Bears are loaded for bear, motivated to win after losing the title won on the field a year ago.

The Bears (9-1) lost only to Woodlawn of Baton Rouge and have big wins over Acadiana, West Monroe, Warren Easton, Lafayette Christian, East Ascension, St. Amant and Dutchtown.

Catholic will host the winner of Thursday night’s game between No. 8 St. Augustine (4-4) and No. 9 Archbishop Shaw (3-5) in the quarterfinals.

The Crusaders (3-5) are seeded 11th. Brother Martin was 8-0 on the field but had to forfeit five games and, like Catholic, Brother Martin is highly motivated for the penalty which it deemed to be unwarranted.

Brother Martin faces a rematch with No. 6 Archbishop Rummel (5-3), whom the Crusaders handled easily, 45-14 in a game seen live on Crescent City Sports on Oct. 8.

The winner of Brother Martin and Rummel will make the five-hour trip north to face No. 3 Byrd in the quarterfinals.

Catholic and Brother Martin are on different ends of the bracket so they could meet in the title game at Yulman Stadium on Dec. 4.

Byrd (9-1) played in the title game a year ago and the Yellow Jackets followed that up with an outstanding season, losing only to Natchitoches Central. Byrd has good wins over Benton and Captain Shreve.

John Curtis Christian (4-3) is the seventh seed and always a threat. The Patriots take on No. 10 Holy Cross (3-5) in a rematch tonight. Curtis beat the Tigers 39-20 on Oct. 22.

The winner advances to take on No. 2 Jesuit in the quarterfinals.

The Blue Jays (8-0) are the Catholic League champion after Brother Martin forfeited its triple-overtime win to Jesuit.

In the regular season, the Blue Jays defeated John Curtis. Jesuit is a well coached team that can contend.

No. 4 seed Scotlandville (6-3), which will face St. Paul’s in a quarterfinal next week, has the talent to compete with the best in the division.

The Hornets defeated East Ascension and Central and got a forfeit win over De La Salle after losing on the field to the Cavaliers. The other losses were to elite teams in Zachary, Karr and Warren Easton.

The vision is that Catholic and Brother Martin are the teams to beat and are most likely to reach the title game.