CCHS holds on to upset Class 2A’s Loreauville

The Central Catholic Eagles relied on an early 20-0 lead Friday and key turnovers by the Loreauville Tigers to hold on just enough to come away with a 27-21 win after Loreauville narrowed the lead with two touchdowns in the fourth quarter.
Central Catholic scored on its first two possessions of the game. The first score came after getting great field position, thanks to an 18-yard Loreauville punt that led to a 24-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Blake Byrne to Matthew Barbier with 7:47 left in the first quarter.
The Eagles then recovered a fumble on the kickoff, getting the ball at the 22-yard line to set up a 6-yard touchdown run by Stefano Guarisco.
Central Catholic head coach Tommy Minton said, “We started fast. I thought we came out really ready to play.”
The Loreauville fumble on the kickoff that led to Central Catholic’s second touchdown of the first quarter was critical, Minton said.
After scoring two touchdowns with just 38 seconds running off the clock in between them, Central Catholic wasted little time scoring again on its third drive of the game on a 4-yard pass from Byrne to Guarisco.
Loreauville tried to respond on its next drive, moving to Central Catholic’s 2-yard line before turning the ball over on a fumble.
The Eagles went to halftime up 20-0 after a scoreless second quarter.
Loreauville head coach Trent Delahoussaye said his team did not come ready to play.
“That’s on me,” he said. “I’m the head coach, and I’ve got to get those guys ready to play. Obviously, in the first quarter, we were sleepwalking. I don’t know exactly what it was because they (Central Catholic) didn’t do anything different.”
In the third quarter, Loreauville finally got on the scoreboard after starting on the 31-yard line due to a 15-yard punt. The drive took just five plays when Shae’ahn Lee ran it in 15 yards for the score.
The Eagles wasted no time answering Loreauville’s first touchdown when Guarisco, who accumulated 206 yards rushing for the game, scored on a 58-yard run with 5:30 remaining in the third quarter.
Central Catholic struggled to get its passing game going in the second half with Byrne completing just two passes after completing 11 in the first half.
“We kind of went stagnant there in the middle of the game,” Minton said. “We’ve got to make some adjustments there.”
Loreauville came alive in the fourth quarter, scoring on a 47-yard pass from Jared Henry to Bryson Broussard and then intercepting a pass to set up a 25-yard touchdown run by Lee with 5:50 remaining in the game to cut the Eagles’ lead to 27-21.
Loreauville got the ball back one more time, but Central Catholic sealed the victory on a Charlie Barron interception.
Both teams threw two interceptions in the game. Loreauville fumbled six times, losing the ball twice, while Central Catholic fumbled three times, recovering all three.
Minton gave credit to Loreauville for making adjustments as the game progressed to take away the Eagles’ short passing game.
“We ended up just doing enough in the second half,” Minton said.
“I thought kids played with a lot of great heart and just competed for four quarters,” he said. “And that’s what it takes.”
The Eagles will approach the season one week at a time, Minton said.
“I thought we did a good job tonight,” he said. “It’s something we can take and build on.”
Turnovers hurt Loreauville, especially when the Tigers fumbled inside the Eagles 5-yard line, Delahoussaye said.
Loreauville’s coach called the Eagles a “well-coached” and “very disciplined” team.
“They’re going to go a long way,” he said. “I think we showed what we can do in the second half.”
Loreauville has a young team with 18 underclassmen playing, Delahoussaye said.
Central Catholic travels to play Lusher Charter Friday.

Central Catholic Boxscore
CCHS LHS
First downs: 17 11
Rushing yards: 186 157
Passing yards: 132 76
Total yards: 318 233
Penalty yards: 6-50 3-15
Fumbles-lost: 3-0 6-2
Punts-Avg: 7-29.7 6-32.8

Score By Quarters
CCHS 20 0 7 0 27
LHS 0 0 6 14 21

Scoring Summary
First Quarter
CCHS: Blake Byrne 24-yard pass to Matthew Barbier. (Barbier kick) 7:47

CCHS: Stefano Guarisco 6-yd. run. (Barbier kick) 7:09

CCHS: Byrne 4-yd. pass to Guarisco (kick failed) 4:37

Third Quarter
LHS: Shae’ahn Lee 15-yd. run (pass failed) 7:16

CCHS: Guarisco 58 yd. run (Barbier kick) 5:30

Fourth Quarter
LHS: Jared Henry 47-yds pass to Bryson Broussard. (Brandon Williams run) 9:10

LHS: Henry 25-yd. run (Henry kick) 5:50

CCHS stats
Passing
Blake Byrne, 13 of 30, 132 yds. 2 TDs and 2 INT

Receiving
Jalen Johnson, 4-54 yds; Matthew Barbier, 2-31 yds. TD; Guarisco, 3-19, TD; Samarick Paul, 2-16; Tony Pennison, 1-13; Matthew Vorenkamp 1- (-1)
Rushing
Stefano Guarisco, 31-206 yds., 2 TDs; Blake Byrne, 5- (-20) yds.