Eagles blow past St. Martin’s Episcopal 49-0

Central Catholic’s matchup with St. Martin’s Episcopal may have been a 16th seed vs. 17th seed matchup, but the contest played out like anything but that.
No. 16 seed Central Catholic did virtually whatever it wanted as the Eagles rolled past No. 17 seed St. Martin’s, 49-0 in Division 4 (Class 1A) first-round action Friday.
Central Catholic coach David Fuhrer said the big victory was one his squad needed as it now will advance to the second round to play No. 1 seed and District 7-1A foe Vermilion Catholic in Abbeville Friday.
“I was pleased with the effort of the kids,” he said. “They played very well. (It) was a very good win. We did a lot of good things (Friday), and we’re kind of excited for that.”
While the matchup pitted teams that were closely seeded together, Fuhrer said he didn’t expect the outcome that the Eagles’ produced Friday.  
“I thought if we played well we could put up some points. … Looking at them on film, I thought they did some good things, and if we didn’t tackle we’d have problems, but I just didn’t expect (that). I think our guys played real well,” Fuhrer said.
The Eagles scored on six of their eight first-half possessions as they jumped out to a 42-0 halftime lead.
Tyler Hoffpauir led the Central Catholic offense with eight catches for 158 yards and three scores, while Stefano Guarisco, Eriq Blanchard, Garret LeBlanc and Nick Case all had rushing touchdowns.
Guarisco led the Eagles’ ground game with 15 carries for 97 yards — all in the first half.
Meanwhile, the Central Catholic defense was dominant, holding St. Martin’s (5-6) to 73 total yards, including -14 yards rushing on 16 carries.
The Eagles’ defense pressured St. Martin’s quarterback Desmond McGovern often and stopped him for loss multiple times.
While McGovern displayed a strong arm, he just couldn’t connect enough with his receivers as he finished 5-of-19 passing for 87 yards with an interception.
St. Martin’s only entered Central Catholic territory three times, twice on two big pass plays and a third time after recovering a fumble at the Central Catholic 47.
After stopping St. Martin’s best drive of the night, Central Catholic’s offense began its scoring onslaught as the Eagles (5-6) used a six-play drive to put up its first points, a 15-yard completion from Case to Hoffpauir with 8:02 remaining in the opening quarter for a 7-0 lead.
The Eagles needed just four plays to score again, this time on a 3-yard run by Case for a 14-0 advantage with 4:48 remaining in the first quarter.
LeBlanc added a 1-yard run at the 9:32 mark of the second quarter, while Guarisco had a two-yard touchdown run at the 5:45 mark and Case connected with Hoffpauir twice more on touchdown passes of 53 yards and 7 yards for the 42-0 halftime advantage.
Following a long return by Guarisco to begin the second half, Central Catholic used a seven-play, 28-yard drive capped by Blanchard’s 2-yard run with about 6:30 remaining in the third quarter for the final margin.
Blanchard finished the game with 13 carries for 70 yards.
Central Catholic kicker Matthew Barbier was 7-for-7 in the contest on extra points.
The Eagles totaled 375 yards of offense (222 rushing and 153 passing).
Case finished 8-of-11 passing for 153 yards and three touchdowns.
Despite the tough loss, St. Martin’s Episcopal coach Frank Cazeaux said his squad would have qualified for this year’s postseason regardless of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association split among select and nonselect schools for this year’s playoffs.
“We did some good things this year,” he said. “Central Catholic’s got a nice team. I’d like to be at their football game next week. I think they did a great job. They’re well coached, their kids play extremely hard, they play with a lot of pride and they have a good program.”
As for this week, Central Catholic now will have a rematch with District 7-1A foe Vermilion Catholic (10-0), who defeated the Eagles 44-31 in Morgan City Friday.
The Screaming Eagles will host Central Catholic Friday at 7 p.m.
“We know what’s ahead of us,” Fuhrer said. “We know how good they are. We just got to have a good week of practice and go play Friday.”

CCHS Box Score

                          CCHS   STM
First downs:                   14         2
Rushing yards:               222       -14                 
Passing yards:               153         87
Total yards:                   375        63
A-C-HI                        11-8-0     19-5-1
Penalty yards:              2-10       2-15
Fumbles-lost:               1-1         0-0  

Score By Quarters

CCHS  14  28 7  0  – 49
STM    0   0  0  0  – 0

Central Catholic Individual Stats
 PASSING
Nick Case 8-of-11 for 153 yds and 3 TDS
                          
                      RECEIVING
Tyler Hoffpauir 8-153 3 TDs
 
RUSHING
Stefano Guarisco 15-97 TD; Eriq Blanchard 13-70 TD; Nick Case 3-31 TD; Garret LeBlanc 2-9 TD; Samuel Guarisco 3-7; Tyler Hoffpauir 1-5; Cooper LeBlanc 1-3; Blake Byrne 3-0

Scoring Summary
First Quarter
CCHS: Nick Case 15-yd. pass to Tyler Hoffpauir (Matthew Barbier kick) 8:02

CCHS: Case 3 yd. run. (Barbier kick) 4:48

                    Second Quarter
CCHS: Garret LeBlanc 1-yd. run (Barbier kick) 9:32
CCHS: Stefano Guarisco 2 yd. run (Barbier kick) 5:45

CCHS: Case 53-yd. pass to Hoffpauir (Barbier kick) 0:54

CCHS: Case 7-yd pass to Hoffpauir (Barbier kick) 0:33

CCHS: Eriq Blanchard 2 yd. run (Barbier kick) 5:42