St. Charles Catholic dominant in 43-0 blanking of Franklinton

 
The St. Charles Catholic Comets soundly defeated the young Franklinton Demons, 43-0, Friday night in LaPlace.

It was an important win for the Comets, bouncing back from a 21-0 loss to De La Salle last week and overcoming a hurricane-shortened week of practice to go 4-1 on the season.

“After a loss, you never know what your DNA is going to be,” said St. Charles Catholic head coach Frank Monica. “I think it’s important that they responded. We weren’t happy with our second half against De La Salle. We preached more this week about ourselves than we did about Franklinton. We preached about coming out of the locker room with a little bit more juice and a little bit more enthusiasm, and I think we did that. Regardless of what the score may have been, I wanted to see my team be more physical and get back to the basics. I think we did that tonight.”

The defense has been the most impressive part of the Comets’ efforts this year, and it was no different against the Demons. St. Charles Catholic has now shut out opponents in three of its five games and averages just six points allowed per contest.

Franklinton managed just 102 yards of total offense, the majority of which came against a backups in the waning moments of the game.

“I can’t say enough about our defense,” Monica said. “In order to win games, you need a good offense, but in order to prevent you from losing, you need a good defense. We always play to our defense. You saw that when you have a good defense and good special teams, you give them a short fuse to work with. I think we did a good job of giving them a short fuse tonight.”

St. Charles Catholic did the majority of its offensive damage on the ground, rushing for 182 yards on 33 carries. Junior quarterback Zack Vicknair was the Comet’s leading rusher with 78 yards on 13 carries. Davon Sturgis was the second-leading rusher with 52 yards on eight carries. Nine different Comets carried the ball during the game. Vicknair also completed six of seven passing attempts for 44 yards and two touchdowns.

Early in the first quarter, it was a defensive battle between the two teams. The Demons were held to a three-and-out on their first possession but then recovered a fumble on St. Charles Catholic’s first offensive play. The Demons were once again forced to punt, pinning the Comets deep in their own territory with just under eight minutes to play in the first quarter.

From there, the Comet offense drove 90 yards in just eight plays to score its first touchdown of the game. Vicknair finished the drive with an 11-yard touchdown pass to Jackson Jensen. Kendall Harris converted the subsequent two-point conversion with a swinging gate trick play to make the score 8-0.

Just two plays later, St. Charles Catholic’s junior cornerback Bryce Bertucci recovered a fumble to give his team great field position at the opposition 17-yard line. Senior fullback Logan Forsyth then powered the ball into the end zone from two yards out to make the score 15-0.

On their next offensive possession, the Comets drove 67 yards in six plays, capping off the drive with a three-yard touchdown run from Kaiden Jones.

Franklinton was unable to take advantage of a muffed punt late in the half and trailed 22-0.

St. Charles Catholic opened the second half with a dominating 13-play, 69-yard touchdown drive. After running the ball 12 consecutive times, the Comets mixed it up with a 7-yard touchdown pass from Vicknair to Brock Clement to make the score 29-0.

The Comets were then able to play some younger players, even a few eighth graders, to see out the game. Backup quarterback Ayden Authement performed well, throwing two touchdown passes. The first was a 36-yard pass to Forsyth, and the second was an 11-yard strike to Troy Johnson to cement the 43-0 victory.

St. Charles Catholic will travel to Newman next Friday for a highly-anticipated Class 2A battle, while Franklinton will host Lakeshore in its first district game.