St. Charles Charles shows heart in overtime win over De La Salle

It figured to be an outstanding game. It lived up to expectations.

Kaiden Jones scored on a 1-yard run to give St. Charles Catholic a thrilling 26-23 victory over De La Salle in triple overtime at Joe Keller Stadium in Reserve Friday night.

In a physical, hard-hitting contest, the two sides played to a 14-14 tie in regulation.

Both teams kicked field goals each in the first two overtimes before the Comets held the Cavaliers to a field goal in the third overtime before scoring the winning touchdown.

The Comet defense was outstanding, forcing three turnovers, including interceptions by Kaden Foster and Samuel Joyce. Mandel Eugene came up with a fumble recovery as well.

Justin Dumas connected with Logan Forsythe on a 23-yard touchdown pass to give the Comets a 7-0 lead before Cole Milford hit Jharon Gilmore on a nine-yard touchdown pass to tie the game by halftime.

Montrell Johnson, back from injury, gave the Cavaliers a 14-7 lead on an eight-yard touchdown run in the third quarter.

It stayed that way until the final two minutes of the game when Dumas broke loose and tied the game on a 14-yard run with 1:36 to play, setting the stage for overtime.

Speaking on The Three Tailgaters Show on 106.1 FM NASH ICON Saturday morning, St. Charles Catholic head coach Frank Monica said he was confident going into overtime.

“Once we got into overtime, I thought our overall conditioning would prevail,” Monica said. “De La Salle is a big, physical talented team that will win a lot of games. This was a really good win. We’ve still got to get better. We’re tubing and we’re hitting the rapids with our schedule.”

Overall, the Comet defense has been superb.

“We allowed two 90-yard drives against Lutcher but it was about mental breakdowns,” Monica said. “We bounced back. We built our football team against our defense. Our staff does a great job of preparing. We count on our defense giving our offense more at-bats. We thrive on creating turnovers and on making plays on special teams.”

While St. Charles Catholic is not the most imposing team getting off the bus, there is great substance to this year’s squad.

“You can measure my height and my weight but you cannot measure my heart,” Monica said. “Our team kept competing in overtime and kept De La Salle out of the end zone. We kept Lutcher out of the end zone when they reached the 1-yard line the week before. I like the heart we are showing.”

The Comets (3-0) return to action next Friday night at home against E.D. White Catholic while the Cavaliers host Amite. The Comets will play at home at a refurbished Dupuy Stadium for the first time.

“We are excited about dedicating our new stadium next Friday night,” Monica said. “It will be a fun night for us.”

It has been a fun season, to date, for the Comets in 2019.