St. Charles Catholic holds off Lutcher, 23-21

In this week's 'Smooth Game of the Week' presented by our friends at @SmoothieKing, it's @SCC_Comets at @lutcherfootball and this one went down to the wire … @SugarBowlNola @FNFwgno #FNFwgno pic.twitter.com/bbDwmVGlU8

— Ed Daniels (@WGNOsports) September 14, 2019

For a few seconds, it seemed like if the Lutcher Bulldogs had just pulled off a stunning rally.

After starting from their own 3-yard line and marching all the way down to the St. Charles Catholic 1-yard line, Jacoby Williams looked as though he had run the ball into the end zone untouched to give the Bulldogs a 27-23 lead with just two minutes remaining.

In all the celebration, no one saw the last thing any team ever wants to see: a yellow flag.

The officials called a controversial illegal chop block penalty on the Bulldogs, negating the run and sending them back 15 yards and most importantly, negating the touchdown. The Bulldogs got a few more shots, the last one being a desperation pass from Mekhi Patterson on 4^th and 20. The ball fell incomplete, allowing the Comets to take over and kneel out the clock for a 23-21 victory Friday night.

For St. Charles Catholic coach Frank Monica, a win wasn’t nearly good enough.

“We had a lot of early mistakes on defense,” said Monica, the winningest coach in River Parish history. “We said we could correct it and felt good about it at halftime but we just had a multitude of errors.”

Those errors included three lost fumbles and seven penalties, as well as allowing a 67-yard completion from Bulldogs quarterback Mekhi Patterson to Rashon Williams to get their final drive started and almost give Comet fans a heart attack. In the end, it was 2 big plays by the special teams that came up for St. Charles Catholic (2-0).

Phillip Trahn returned a kickoff 75 yards late in the first quarter to give the Comets excellent field position. Six plays later, quarterback Justin Dumas found tight end Brock Clement from three-yards out on 4^th and goal to tie the game up 7-7 on the first play of the second quarter.

The other major special teams play came on next possession for Lutcher (0-2), when the Bulldogs lined up to punt. The ball sailed over the punters head, into the end zone and was recovered by linebacker Mandel Eugene for another touchdown, this one giving the Comets a 14-7 lead. The defense also picked up a safety in the 3^rd quarter when Eli Ory got one of the Comets 4 sacks on the evening of Patterson, this one in the end zone. The Comets scored on the next possession when Dumas found Trahn on a screen pass which Than took 34 yards for a score.

Still, Monica wasn’t satisfied.

“We turned over the ball three times and that’s not us,” he said. “That’s unacceptable and we have to get that cleaned up.”

For the Bulldogs it was a story of 13 penalties and getting themselves knocked out of good field position due to sacks and lost runs. Ultimately though, Lutcher head coach Dwaine Jenkins felt it all came down to the penalty.

“You think you do everything you can by driving the ball 90 yards down the field and scoring with two minutes left and then there’s a flag dropped way off in the darkness,” he said. “It was a walk in touchdown so I’m not even sure what the flag was. I don’t know, I guess I’ll have to look at the tape.”