Replay: Brother Martin delivers solid opening effort in blanking Madison Prep

NEW ORLEANS – For Brother Martin coach Mark Bonis, Thursday night’s 28-0 victory over Madison Prep delivered everything you could ask on opening night of the high school football season.

Win? Check.

Good performances by all three phases? Check, check and check.

Coachable moments for the video session? Absolutely.

Seth Dazet passed for three touchdowns and Jordan West and Brodie Dumantier each scored twice, while the Crusader defense posted a season-opening shutout over the Chargers for the second consecutive year in a game seen live on Crescent City Sports.

“I’m proud of our guys but there’s a lot of things we can improve,” Bonis said. “A lot of coachable moments – that’s always fun.”

Certainly the three turnovers by the Brother Martin offense will show up in the film session, along with other errors along the way. But on this night, the good far outweighed the bad.

Dazet, a junior who took over as the Crusaders’ starting quarterback in Week 9 last season and engineered a run to the school’s first state championship appearance in 33 years, completed 11 of 15 passes for 139 yards and TD passes of 13 yards to West and 67 and 14 yards to Dumontier.

Dazet totaled three touchdown passes in his seven starts last year. He matched that total in three quarters of the opener.

“Very good play calls,” said Dazet. “The receivers did their jobs.”

The opening score, on a pass from Dazet to West with 7:08 left in the opening quarter, was set up by a muffed punt at the MPA 27. After a punt, Brother Martin ran it three straight times to its 33 before Dazet turned to play-action and found Dumontier behind the secondary to make it 14-0 with 3:21 left in the period.

“We knew the safety was going to turn his hips,” Dazet said. “Brodie’s a very good wide receiver with good hands.”

It stayed 14-0 until halftime. The Crusader defense stopped the Chargers on the first possession of the third quarter, and Dazet and the offense responded with a nine-play, 57-yard drive, capped by the second TD pass to Dumontier.

A bad option pitch was recovered by Marco Flores at the MPA 12, and four plays later, West took it in from the 1 for his second score of the night.

Brother Martin opens a three-game road swing next Friday at St. Paul’s, while Madison Prep plays at Southern Lab next week.