Eagles start season at Class 2A Loreauville

The Central Catholic Eagles will open their regular season Friday with a traditional foe in Class 2A Loreauville.
The Tigers enter the contest ranked No. 9 in the initial Louisiana Sports Writers Association Class 2A poll released this week.
At the Iberia Parish Sugar Cane Jamboree a week ago, the Tigers defeated Jeanerette, 8-0, with all of the scoring coming courtesy of Shae’ahn Lee. Lee had a three-yard touchdown run with 5:43 remaining in the first half, while he also recorded a safety, sacking Jeanerette’s quarterback in the end zone in the second half.
Despite the win, Loreauville was plagued by fumbles as they had six. Two of those fumbles ended promising drives.
Central Catholic coach Tommy Minton said his squad will be facing a quick Loreauville team Friday.
“They got great team speed,” Minton said. “That’s the first thing that jumps out at you when you look at them on field. … They’ve got a successful program. They’ve won 10 or more games three years in a row now. They were a Class 2A state semifinalist last year, so they got tradition, their kids know how to win, so it’s a situation where we got to go into their place, we got to battle them for four quarters and we got to show them that we’re not backing down.”
One player the Eagles will have their eyes on is Louisiana Tech commitment and wide receiver Rhashid Bonnette, who is used in multiple ways.
“He’s a big time receiver. … Last year he returned a punt for a touchdown against us that was a determining factor in the game,” Minton said. “He can hurt you on special teams, he can hurt you on offense. They’ll use him on screens, they’ll use him throwing the ball down the field, they’ll use him on speed sweeps. So we got to account for him. We got to know where he is at all times, and we got to defend him.”
Defensively, Minton said the Tigers’ team speed is a concern.
“We’re going to have to be able to take advantage of some things they’re doing to counteract that in order to slow them down, and I think we got a good plan on both sides of the ball going in and hopefully we can execute it and go out there and get a win,” Minton said.
Offensively, Loreauville runs a spread attack, while on defense, they line up with a three-man front in a 3-4 look or 3-3 stack.
In its jamboree contest, Central Catholic shut out Sacred Heart of Ville Platte, 14-0.
Both of the Eagles’ touchdowns came following Sacred Heart miscues. Junior running back Stefano Guarisco scored on a 5-yard run on offense in the first half after he picked off a Sacred Heart pass to give the Eagles’ possession.
The Eagles scored their second touchdown on Guarisco’s 23-yard run in the second half after senior Logan Arias recovered a fumble by Sacred Heart on special teams.
Central Catholic nearly had a third touchdown, but a 90-yard interception return for a score was negated via penalty.
The Eagles limited the Trojans to 49 yards of total offense — all rushing — and standout junior Stefano Guarisco picked off two of the Trojans’ four pass attempts.
Guarisco led the Eagles with 13 carries for 66 yards and two touchdowns, while catching three passes for 48 yards.
The Eagles’ Blake Byrne completed 9 of 16 passes for 110 yards.
While the Eagles did excel, Minton said following the contest there were things his squad needed to work on.
“I think our major emphasis has just been on the technique, getting better technique-wise, getting better alignment-wise,” he said.
Minton said he would like to see his squad be more consistent.
“We played really good in some spurts, and in some spurts we were back on our heels,” he said. “We just want to be consistent and play hard for every snap and see if we can’t carry that over into a four-quarter game.”
The Central Catholic coach also said he would like to see more balance.
“We got to be able to run and throw the football,” Minton said. “You want to be able to stretch the defense vertically, and you want to be able to make them defend the whole field and I think we’re getting there. We’re not totally there yet, but that’s the finished product we’re working towards on offense.”
Friday’s game will kick off at 7 p.m. in Loreauville.
Additional reporting by www.iberianet.com.