No. 3 CCHS, No. 6 Ouachita Christian will meet in Morgan City Friday

No. 3 Central Catholic will meet No. 6 Ouachita Christian School Friday in a top 10 showdown in the Division IV quarterfinals in Morgan City.
While Central Catholic enters the contest after edging No. 14 Delhi Charter 12-8 on a late touchdown score, Ouachita Christian rolled past No. 11 seed Covenant Christian 56-21.
Ouachita Christian never trailed in the contest, taking a 14-0 lead after the first quarter and a 46-7 advantage at halftime.
Ouachita Christian totaled 342 yards of offense in the win (234 passing and 108 rushing).
Quarterback Chance Clowers led Ouachita Christian on the ground with eight carries for 80 yards and two touchdowns, while Josh Pennebaker had three carries for 61 yards and a touchdown.
Clowers also completed 4 of 7 passes for 108 yards and two touchdowns.
Jake Slaughter led the team with two receptions for 74 yards and a score.
Defensively, Ouachita Christian surrendered 269 yards of offense to Covenant Christian, including 212 rushing yards.
Bryan Reppond and Grant Fitzhugh led the defense with 10 and 8 tackles, respectively.
Ouachita Christian, led by 17th-year head coach Steve Fitzhugh, and Central Catholic have met twice before, both blowout victories for Ouachita Christian.
Their last meeting was in the 2011 Class 1A quarterfinals when Ouachita Christian defeated Central Catholic 41-6 in Monroe.
Two years prior, Ouachita Christian defeated Central Catholic 66-34 in Class 1A bi-district action in Morgan City.
While this year’s Ouachita Christian team has lost three games, they are all ranked at or near the top of their classes. The Eagles fell to Class 1A’s No. 1 seed Mangham, Class 3A’s No. 4 seed Union Parish and Class 2A’s No. 3 seed Sterlington, who all still are in the postseason.
Central Catholic head coach Tommy Minton said that Ouachita Christian has had a good deal of playoff success in recent years.
“They have a good tradition in their program,” he said. “You look at this year’s team, very big, good size. You mix in they got a good array of skill people to go with it.”
For the season, Slaughter leads Ouachita Christian in both rushing and receiving in its spread offense. He has carried the ball 65 times for 538 yards with eight touchdowns, while he also has caught 53 passes for 872 yards and 13 touchdowns.
“They try to get the ball in No. 5, the Slaughter kid’s hands, as many ways as possible, throwing it to him, handing it off to him, speed sweeps,” Minton said. “He’s a tall kid, 6-2, about 190 pounds. He’s committed to LSU to play baseball, but he’s every bit as good a football player.”
Other top rushers this season for Ouachita Christian include Clowers, 84 rushes for 374 yards and seven touchdowns; Mavrick Wilhite, 39 rushes for 340 yards and five touchdowns; and Nick Sumrall, 32 carries for 304 yards and a score.
Through the air, Clowers has completed 136 of 233 passes for 1,973 yards with 26 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
Other top receivers for the Eagles include Garryn Chowns, who has caught 37 passes for 545 yards and five touchdowns, while Wilhite has 25 receptions for 293 yards and four scores.
“They are balanced,” Minton said. “They try to mix it up. I think they’ll be even more balanced. Their best running back, Pennebaker, has been out for a few weeks and he got back last week … so that’s going to give them another running threat.”
Pennebaker has rushed nine times for 72 yards and a touchdown this season.
On defense, Minton said Ouachita Christian changes fronts.
“They’ll go from a three-man front to a four-man front and they’ll bring pressure at times and at times they’ll drop into coverage,” he said. “They try to change the looks a good bit.”
Reppond and Fitzhugh led the team with 130 and 120 tackles, respectively.
A week ago, Central Catholic needed a late touchdown to defeat Delhi Charter, 12-8.
The Eagles got the game-winning touchdown when quarterback Blake Byrne connected with wide receiver Matthew Barbier for a 51-yard touchdown pass with 1:51 remaining in the contest.
The Eagles’ defense kept Delhi Charter from responding and Central Catholic clinched the victory.
Central Catholic moved the ball against Delhi Charter and reached the Gators’ red zone four times in its first-round win. The Eagles were successful on just 1-of-4 attempts inside the Delhi Charter 20 via a 1-yard run by Stefano Guarisco on a fourth down play to give the Eagles a 6-0 lead late in the first quarter.
“We should have scored five touchdowns easily and we shot ourselves in the foot. That’s something that we can’t afford to do,” Minton said.
Guarisco led the Eagles’ ground game with 28 carries for 163 yards and a score, while he also caught one pass for 17 yards.
Byrne completed 8 of 22 passes for 168 yards with one touchdown and one interception.
Samarick Paul led Central Catholic’s receivers with four catches for 66 yards, and Barbier had two receptions for 60 yards and a score.
Guarisco leads the Eagles’ ground game this year with 270 carries for 1,369 yards and 21 scores. Chris Singleton also has carried 47 times for 302 yards and three touchdowns.
Through the air, Byrne has completed 83 of 178 passes for 1,326 yards with 17 touchdowns and 14 interceptions.
Jalen Johnson leads Central Catholic’s receivers with 22 catches for 437 yards and four touchdowns, while Paul has 30 catches for 392 yards and six scores. Barbier has 21 catches for 358 yards and four touchdowns while Guarisco has 16 receptions for 272 yards and three scores.
Friday’s game will begin at 7 p.m.
Additional information, http://athletics.ocs.org/