Replay: Cardiac Country Day Cajuns strike again, rally in 4th quarter to top Newman 35-31

NEW ORLEANS – The Cardiac Cajuns from Country Day did it again.

The Cajuns scored the game’s final 21 points – all in the final 6:13 – to rally from a 17-point deficit and defeat Newman 35-31 in an instant classic matchup of unbeatens Friday night at Lupin Field.

The game was seen live on Crescent City Sports.

It’s the third time in six weeks Country Day has rallied from a double-figure deficit in the fourth quarter to win. The Cajuns came back to defeat Amite, then the top-ranked team in Class 2A, 24-23 in Week 1, and stormed back in the final minutes to top St. Charles Catholic 11-10 two weeks ago.

“It’s an experienced group of seniors who have played a lot of football for us,” said fourth-year Country Day coach Joe Chango, whose team is second in the Crescent City Sports Class 2A rankings. “They have a lot of heart.

“This is my first group of seniors, and they’ve bought into everything we sell. They’re a great group of dudes.”

Chango’s “dudes” trailed 21-0 and 28-7 and entered the fourth quarter down 31-14 before quarterback Justin Ibieta led the comeback. Ibieta, who accounted for 431 total yards and five touchdowns on the night, put together three long drives in the final 10 minutes.

“I’ve been telling people he’s a special kid,” Chango said. “We’ve got some great receivers in Tyler Williams and Christian Becnel.”

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The Cajuns (6-0) got the ball at their own 13-yard line with 10:22 remaining and drove 87 yards in a 12-play drive that included three third-down conversions. Ibieta hit C.D. St. Hilaire for a 9-yard touchdown to make it 31-21 with 6:13 remaining.

Newman (5-1), who came in as the No. 7 team in the CCS 2A rankings, ran nearly three minutes off the clock and pinned Country Day back at its 2-yard line with a punt with 3:22 left.

After an 8-yard pass and a penalty got the Cajuns out of the hole, three straight incompletions left the Newman defense with an opportunity to get a fourth-down stop and put the game away. But Ibieta, under a heavy Greenie rush, desperately threw a chest pass to Ross Talbot for 14 yards, keeping the drive alive.

Ibieta followed with completions of 29 yards to Williams and then a 32-yard strike to Becnel – his third TD catch of the night – to pull within 31-28 with two minutes left.

The Greenies recovered the on-side kick, but Country Day still had alll three time outs left. The Cajuns got a three-and-out and got the ball back with 1:26 left at its 30.

After an incompletion, Ibieta was perfect on the rest of the drive, hitting Williams for 22 yards and three completions to Becnel for 32 yards (sandwiched around a pass interference penalty) to get to the 1-yard line.

After a Newman time out, Ibieta snuck it in from the 1 on with 32 seconds remaining to give Country Day its first lead of the night.

Newman had a final chance, but Becnel, one of the Cajuns’ regular two-way players, intercepted Martin Butcher’s final pass attempt as time expired to hand the Greenies their first regular-season loss since falling at Country Day in Week 8 of the 2016 season, 18 games ago.

“We found our rhythm a little bit,” Chango said of the fourth-quarter comeback. “We started to hit the receivers, it gave us a little more in the running game and Justin started making better decisions.”

Starting with the chest pass to Talbot, Ibieta completed eight of his final nine passes for 129 yards. He ended the night 27 of 46 for 370 yards and four touchdowns to go with 21 rushes for 61 yards and another score.

In addition to his game-clinching interception, Becnel caught 12 passes for 155 yards and three touchdowns.

Butcher, who led Newman to touchdowns on three of its first four drives as it jumped to  21-0 lead midway through the second quarter, finished 15 of 27 for 310 yards and four touchdowns. He also rushed for 94 yards on 14 carries. Butcher’s favorite target, Murray Calhoun, had five catches for 131 yards.

Country Day stays on the road the next two weeks against Fisher and Ben Franklin before ending the season with home games vs. Riverside and South Plaquemines.

“We’ve just got to keep playing hard,” Chango said. “Football is a long season.”

Country Day       0 7 7 21 – 35
Isidore Newman    7 14 10 0 – 31
New – Charbonnet 8 pass from Butcher (Hardie kick), 4:02 1st
New – Calhoun 7 pass from Butcher (Hardie kick), 10:19 2nd
New – Ford 66 pass from Butcher (Hardie kick), 4:26 2nd
CD – Becnel 5 pass from Ibieta (Lopez kick), :23 2nd
New – Calhoun 74 pass from Butcher (Hardie kick), 9:16 3rd
CD – Becnel 5 pass from Ibieta (Lopez kick), 6:49 3rd
New – Hardie 23 FG, 3:47 3rd
CD – St. Hilaire 9 pass from Ibieta (Lopez kick), 6:13 4th
CD – Becnel 32 pass from Ibieta (Lopez kick), 2:00 4th
CD – Ibieta 1 run (Lopez kick), :32 4th

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