REPLAY: Martin leads De La Salle past St. Paul’s, 16-14

NEW ORLEANS – In a tie game early in the fourth quarter Friday night at Yulman Stadium, there was little doubt where the football was going when De La Salle regained possession with 10:34 remaining.

And P.J. Martin delivered in crunch time.

Martin had 125 of his 255 rushing yards in the fourth quarter, including a 71-yard scamper that set up the go-ahead 5-yard touchdown run, to lead the Cavaliers to a 16-14 victory over St. Paul’s in a game broadcast live by Crescent City Sports.

Martin, coming off a Player of the Week effort in which he rushed for 292 yards in a come-from-behind victory over Holy Cross last Friday, had eight runs of 10 yards or longer in moving his season rushing total to 724 in three games.

His fourth-quarter score made it a 13-7 game, and it remained that way when the extra point try was blocked after a slow operation.

The Cavalier defense got a fourth-down stop at the DLS 34 with 6:44 to play, then avoided disaster moments later when Martin took a direct shot on the football and fumbled, but quarterback Mark Dix recovered. Martin again took over with runs of 21, 30 and six yards to set up a 21-yard field goal by Connor Butler with 1:43 left that proved to be the game-winning points.

That’s because St. Paul’s wasn’t done. The Wolves went 64 yards in 76 seconds, scoring on an 19-yard pass from Ben Buisson to Jack Salvaggio with 27 seconds left.

The Cavaliers’ Jace Bienemy pounced on the ensuing on-side kick and De La Salle ran out the clock.

The game was scoreless for the first 23-plus minutes as both teams made key defensive plays, getting fourth-down stops and forcing opportune turnovers.

Finally, De La Salle worked the two-minute drill to near perfection, getting on the board 27 seconds before halftime on a 5-yard pass from Dix to Jeremiah Wills to take a 7-0 lead into halftime.

St. Paul’s went three-and-out to open the third quarter, but the punt was muffed when it inadvertently hit a member of De La Salle’s coverage team and the Wolves were in business at the DLS 41. On the 10th play of the drive, facing fourth-and-goal at the 3, St. Paul’s coach Kenny Sears went for it and Buisson followed the block of Jacob Davies into the end zone for the tying score with 4:50 left in the quarter.

After an exchange of possessions and switching ends at the end of the quarter, Martin took over.

After a pair of wins over 5A teams the last two weeks, the task gets no easier for De La Salle next week as it faces defending Division III champion St. Charles Catholic next Friday in LaPlace.

St. Paul’s opens district play next Friday at Slidell.