Lions hold off Panthers

Berwick and Covenant Christian Academy went toe-to-toe in the first game of the Taco Bell/KFC St. Mary Parish Football Jamboree Friday at Tiger Stadium in Morgan City.
The Lions’ rushing attack, however, was too much for the young Panthers, and Covenant Christian upended Berwick, 27-19.
Covenant Christian wasted little time getting its running game on track when Jordan McKay darted 57 yards on the Lions’ first play from scrimmage. McKay didn’t reach the end zone because of Berwick’s Braden Billiot’s all-out hustle. The senior ran down the big back at the 14-yard line.
But two plays later, Marquel Daigle found pay dirt from 10 yards out for the game’s first score.
After a Berwick fumble, Covenant Christian went right back to its ground game, marching down the field on a nine-play, 68-yard drive that McKay capped on a 22-yard run. Joseph Delgado’s extra point gave the Lions a 14-0 lead.
McKay carried nine times for 101 yards and two touchdowns, and Covenant Christian rolled up 189 yards rushing and four touchdowns.
“Jordan obviously gives us the chance to take it to the house every time he touches the ball,” Covenant Christian head coach Randy Boquet told www.bayoupreps.com. “He’s a gifted ballplayer. But we’ve got Callan Bourg, who made some big runs for us. Devyn Allen at the fullback position made some good runs for us. And we have a quarterback, too, who can run when he needs to. We’re pretty proud of what we have in our backfield right now.”
Berwick’s next drive led to points, thanks to four Covenant Christian penalties and a fake punt.
Two plays later, Berwick quarterback Jeremy Boudreaux hooked up with Audwin Williams on a 14-yard touchdown pass to make the score 14-6. Boudreaux was 4-of-10 for 51 yards and two touchdowns despite a couple drops.
Boudreaux found Williams again on a 33-yard touchdown pass with 54 seconds left in the first half to cut the lead to 14-12 at halftime.
“I think Jeremy played well,” Berwick coach Craig Brodie said. “He tossed a couple touchdown passes to Audwin Williams. They were taking away our inside veer game, and they were a little faster than we thought they would be, but we made adjustments and went to play-action passes and they were in man coverage to stop our run and the kids executed well.”
Covenant Christian extended the lead on a 16-yard run by Daigle on its first possession of the second half for a 21-12 lead with 9:32 to play.
Berwick’s offense answered again when senior running back Marquis Rogers broke free for a 77-yard touchdown run with 3:26 left to play. Berwick female kicker Shannon Theriot added the extra-point for a 21-19 Covenant Christian lead.
“I give us an ‘A’ for effort tonight,” Brodie said. “We really competed, and that’s something we have been working on since I’ve been at Berwick. We had our opportunities. We had a couple wide open receivers, but we had drops and overthrows.”
Covenant Christian ended Berwick’s comeback hopes when McKay scored on a 10-yard run with 26 seconds left in the game.
“Defensively, I also thought we played well,” Brodie said. “They had a really good running back that was hard to tackle, and he popped us for a couple long ones but we never gave up.”
Berwick will open its season Friday at Delcambre, while Covenant Christian will face Peabody Friday in Alexandria.
Additional reporting by www.bayoupreps.com.