CCHS to host False River Thursday

Central Catholic may have finished its regular season with a 23-4 mark, picked up the No. 3 seed in Class 1A and is back in position to make another run to the Class 1A finals.
But Central Catholic coach Tyler Jensen isn’t satisfied.
“We’ve won a lot of games, but I don’t feel like we’ve played near to our potential,” Jensen said. “It’s kind of an up-down here and there (thing). We’ve actually caught a lot of breaks late in games to find ways to win, which is always good. … I think that we’ve underachieved at times, performance wise, and then I do think there’s some guys that have stepped up and played a lot better than we have anticipated.”
However, Jensen noted that the last two years his squad hasn’t played well down the stretch of the regular season before making a postseason run to the Class 1A state finals the past two years.
“I’m hoping that part of our issue here lately is the kids have just been ready for the playoffs,” Jensen said.
Three of Central Catholic’s four losses this season came against higher-classification foes in Class 5A Comeaux, Class 3A E.D. White and Class 4A Westgate. The fourth loss was the Class 1A’s fifth-ranked squad, Vermilion Catholic. All of those teams except Westgate, who the Eagles fell to Monday, 6-3 in Amelia.
“We just didn’t play well at all,” Jensen said of the Westgate game. “We were very flat.”
The Eagles finished the season 11-1 in District 7-1A play, winning the district championship.
As for False River, the Gators finished 8-18 overall and fourth place in District 5-1A play with a 2-6 mark.
Jensen said False River is scrappy and likes to bunt and play a lot of small ball. He also said they have a “decent” pitcher.
One game he points to that caught his eye is their matchup against St. John of Plaquemine, the No. 4 seed in the Class 1A playoffs, who beat False River 7-3 on Friday.
“St. John’s a top four or five team, so False River is not your typical 30 seed,” Jensen said. “They, by no means, (are) a good draw and by no means will it be an easy day. They’re really well coached.”
Ironically, Jensen and False River’s coach, Nick Domingue, played against each other a few times in high school. Domingue prepped at Teurlings Catholic.
While Thursday’s game will be played at 4:30 p.m., Jensen said it is not due to the glitch with the right field lights, which went out during Monday’s game against Westgate and Jensen said were fixed Tuesday.
Rather, he said False River requested the early start time because they have about a 2.5 hour drive home.
Admission to Thursday’s game will be $7.