MCHS to open district at South Lafourche

Morgan City High School will open District 7-4A play Friday at South Lafourche looking to build upon its 4-1 start to the season.
Both Morgan City and South Lafourche are coming off losses a week ago as the Tigers suffered their first defeat to Westminster Christian, 28-21 in overtime, while South Lafourche (2-3) was routed by Plaquemine, 44-14
Morgan City head coach Scott Tregle said in the preseason he wanted his squad to build confidence and rack up wins in their preseason schedule heading into district.
With a 4-1 mark, it’s safe to say he got that, and while he does feel good about where his team is at heading into the South Lafourche game Friday, there was plenty to be disappointed about in last week’s loss to Westminster.
“We kinda got lackadaisical the last couple of weeks at practice,” Tregle said Wednesday.
Additionally, he said the Westminster coaching staff had their team well prepared heading into last week’s contest with Morgan City.
“They had (a) different game plan than we thought they were going to have,” Tregle said. “We went in with the same game plan, same defense we’ve been running, and we figured we’re gonna execute and do what we do, and they took it away.”
The Tigers’ run game was limited in the second half and they had to turn to their passing game, something Tregle said his team was not used to but the Tigers had success with on the outside with Lloyd Singleton and Makye Richard.
“We made them pay for it, but it just happened a little too late,” Tregle said.
Richard finished the game with nine catches for 159 yards and a touchdown, while Singleton had three catches for 50 yards.
Quarterback Abram Hartley completed 12 of 25 passes for 209 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions.
Ethan Scioneaux led the ground game with 11 carries for 40 yards and a touchdown.
Despite the success in the passing game, the Tigers’ offense did have problems as they turned the ball over three times — twice via interceptions and another via a fumble — and Westminster scored on two of those three turnovers.
While the Tigers’ defense limited Westminster to just 246 yards of offense, Tregle wasn’t pleased with their effort.
“It’s an eye-opening experience,” Tregle said of the game. “We just had to regroup this week and now we’re playing South Lafourche.”
Things certainly won’t be any easier this week when the squad faces a South Lafourche team that has 28 seniors on their squad. Tregle said that’s more than half of Morgan City’s total team, which includes nine seniors.
Morgan City will have a couple of players injured, too, Tregle said, noting they were not serious.
“Hopefully, we go down there and we just compete,” he said.
In the loss to Plaquemine, South Lafourche actually led 7-6 in the first quarter before Plaquemine outscored them 38-7 in the second and third quarters en route to the easy win.
Despite the lopsided loss, South Lafourche got solid production from its run game as Corbin Allen led the team with 16 carries for 143 yards and a score, while Jaydon Cheramie had 15 carries for 110 yards and a touchdown. He also passed for 64 yards.
South Lafourche totaled 309 yards of offense in the loss.
“Offensively, they run a spread, but they really run (I-formation) plays out of the spread,” Tregle said, adding that they run out of the pistol formation and a split back look.
On defense, he said they run a 4-2-5 and sometimes switch to a 4-3.
“Every team I’ve seen them play, they ran a cover 2 against them, but those were all spread teams,” Tregle said. “Plaquemine last week got in a wing-T and they were still in the cover 2, but they walked some guys down (to the line of scrimmage) in some different situations.”
Tregle said he expects more attention to stop the run this week and going forward.
“We (are) putting in a few formations this week and spread ’em out a little bit,” he said. “We’re going to still run the ball. We’re going to still do our thing, but we’re going to have to throw the ball a little more from here on out. That’s all there is to it.”
Hartley leads the Tigers in passing this season as he has completed 21 of 52 passes for 368 yards with four touchdowns and two interceptions.
The Tigers’ run game is pretty balanced as Malik Phillips leads the squad with 41 carries for 273 yards and five touchdowns, while Kedrick Scott has 61 carries for 267 yards and three touchdowns and Scioneaux, 35 carries for 266 yards and four touchdowns.
Richard leads the Tigers’ receivers with 13 catches for 230 yards and three touchdowns.
Friday’s game will begin at 7 p.m.
Additional reporting by www.bayoupreps.com.