CCHS Eagles prepping for Griffin, Highland Baptist

Central Catholic will be traveling Friday to face a Highland Baptist team that has become more productive after making some changes to its offense.
While the squad totaled a combined 19 points in its first two contests, losses to Houma Christian and Jeanerette, Highland Baptist has scored 39 and 49 points, respectively, the last two weeks against Vermilion Catholic and Lafayette Christian.
A week ago against Lafayette Christian, Highland Baptist (1-3 overall, 1-1 in district) staged a fourth-quarter comeback for a 49-48 upset victory. Lafayette Christian entered the game then tied for sixth in the Louisiana Sports Writers Association Class 1A poll.
“The last two weeks they’ve played really, really good football, and I think it goes back to them changing their offense back to what they’ve done the last few years,” Central Catholic coach Tommy Minton said. “They started the season trying to run some different stuff on offense, and it wasn’t suiting their personnel I don’t think.”
As a team, Highland Baptist had 32 first downs and 590 yards of offense against Lafayette Christian, including 490 rushing.
Highland Baptist is led by running back Bronte Griffin, who rushed for 350 yards on 40 carries with five touchdowns last week.
Minton said Griffin has rushed for more than 300 yards the last two weeks.
Central Catholic’s coach agreed it would be key to keep Griffin’s damage outside the red zone.
“We want to keep him out the end zone,” Minton said. “We want to make him earn every yard, and the key thing is tackling. He makes a lot of yardage after first contact, and we got to tackle and we got to keep getting hats on him.”
Keeping Griffin from breaking a big run will be key, Minton said.
The Bears also feature Ray Johnson Jr., who lines up at wingback, tailback and is used in the passing and run game.
“He’s a good complement to Griffin, but everything they do centers around Griffin,” Minton said. “He carried the ball 40 times last week, and for a high school running back to carry the ball 40 times … he’s a load. He’s a workhorse.”
Defensively, Highland Baptist will utilize a four-man front.
“We feel like we have some good matchups with our offense,” Minton said. “The last two weeks they’ve given up 94 points (combined), so that tells you right there that they have had some problems stopping people, and we got to make drives count. We got to get points off of drives, because with the Griffin kid, he scares you with his big-play ability. At any time he can break out, so we got to make every possession count for us on offense.”
Central Catholic (2-3, 1-1) enters its first Friday night game in 2016 after breaking a three-game losing streak a week ago with a 49-13 victory against Centerville in District 7-1A action.
Central Catholic had six possessions a week ago and scored on their first five.
Chris Singleton, who sat out last week due to injury, leads the team in rushing this season with 393 yards on 58 carries with eight touchdowns. Bailey Badeaux isn’t far behind with 352 yards on 57 carries and four touchdowns.
Through the air, Blake Byrne leads the Eagles with 599 yards, five touchdowns and four interceptions. He has completed 32 of 66 pass attempts.
Samarick Paul leads Central Catholic’s receivers with 276 yards and three touchdowns on 15 catches, while Greg Leger has 222 yards and two scores on six receptions.
Friday’s game is set for a 7 p.m. start.
Additional reporting by www.theadvertiser.com/sports.