Lafayette Christian tops St. Charles Catholic for Division III title

LAFAYETTE – Missed first-half opportunities cost St. Charles Catholic in a 41-14 loss to Lafayette Christian in the LHSAA Division III state championship Saturday night at Cajun Field.

LCA (12-1), which won the last two Division IV championships, became the 10th program in Louisiana high school history to win three straight titles.

“It’s a privilege to get to coach guys like this,” said LCA coach JaCarde Carter. “I’m going to get a lot of the credit, but the other coaches and the players deserve the credit.

“We were expecting (SCC) to come out fighting and they did. These kind of games are fun.”

The Comets (11-2), which got at least as far as the semifinals for the sixth consecutive season, had three possessions finish inside the 25-yard line in the first half, but came away empty each time and trailed 20-0 at halftime.

LCA capped the opening drive with a 7-yard run by all-purpose standout Sage Ryan, his 22nd TD of the year.

Phillip Tran returned the ensuing kickoff to the LCA 35-yard line, but the Comets’ opening drive stalled and Carter Chauvin missed a 33-yard field goal.

An exchange of punts – an LCA punt downed at the 1 followed by a three-and-out and a 12-yard SCC punt – set up the Knights for their second score.

On the first play after the punt, Errol Rogers Jr. hit Dane Wallace for a 21-yard touchdown pass.

Princeton Malbrue forced a St. Charles Catholic fumble to set up LCA at the Comet 20. Four plays later, Logan Gabriel scored from the 1 to make it a 20-0 game with 4:45 left in the second quarter.

The Comets had two huge opportunities in the final two minutes of the first half, but Malbrue played a role in stopping both.

A Malbrue sack killed a possession after SCC recovered a fumble at the Knight 25 with two minutes left in the first half.

The Comets got a three-and-out, called time out with 18 seconds left and Mandel Eugene blocked a punt and Riley LeBlanc returned it to the LCA 3. On the next play, Malbrue’s strip-sack of Justin Dumas got the ball back for LCA.

Monica argued that Dumas’ arm was coming forward on the play and it should have been an incomplete pass.

Tran popped another big return to open the second half, and the Comets finally capitalized. Zack Vicknair lined up at quarterback and scored on a 24-yard run on third-and-2 to make it 20-7 just 95 seconds into the third quarter.

LCA responded with an 11-play drive that took more than five minutes off the clock, with Logan Gabriel taking it across from the 5.

SCC appeared to be stopped on its next drive, but Dumas – who is also the punter – took off after a high snap and rushed for a first down. Three plays later, it was again Vicknair at quarterback and he bolted down the far sideline for a 31-yard touchdown run to make it 27-14 with 1:23 left in the quarter.

It took only 22 seconds for LCA to answer. Rogers returned the ensuing kickoff to the Comet 36, but he was penalized 15 yards for excessive celebration. The senior quickly made up for it on the next play from scrimmage, keeping it 51 yards for a touchdown after colliding with one of his linemen in the backfield.

On the Knights’ next possession, Gabriel rambled 68 yards on a fake punt to the SCC 8. The senior running back kept going, running on the next three plays, including the final yard for his second TD to make it 41-14 with 4:43 to play.