Vandebilt Catholic storms by Morgan City, 55-26

The Morgan City High School Tigers began Friday’s game on a good note on offense, moving the ball down the field for a score to take an early lead, while on defense, the Tigers stopped the Terriers deep in Morgan City territory.
Unfortunately for the Tigers, their good fortunes for much of the night would end there as Vandebilt Catholic would bounce back with eight straight scoring drives en route to a 55-26 victory in District 7-4A play at Buddy Marcello Stadium in Houma.
While Morgan City didn’t have much success in its run game for much of the night, its passing game worked well on its first drive of the game. Quarterback Hector Tolento completed two straight third-down passes of 41 and 18 yards, respectively, to wide receiver Jaylen Jones to turn third-and-long situations into first downs for the Tigers.
After the 18-yard completion, which was accompanied by a penalty against Vandebilt Catholic, the Tigers had the ball in a first-and-goal situation at the Vandebilt Catholic 8-yard line.
On fourth down from the 1-yard line, Tolento gained the final yard for the score.
Irving Delgado’s extra point was good for a 7-0 Morgan City lead with 6:21 remaining in the opening quarter.
While Vandebilt (3-6 overall, 2-1 in district) returned the ensuing kickoff to its own 49-yard line and had success early running the ball with Gate Corte, the Tigers’ Clifton Escort dropped Corte’s teammate, O’Shawn Henderson, twice for consecutive 7-yard losses, forcing the Terriers into passing situations.
Both passes by quarterback David Yancey were incomplete, preventing a Terrier touchdown.
From there, though, things went south for Morgan City.
The Tigers were held scoreless for much of the remainder of the first half, while Vandebilt Catholic got rolling behind its running game, particularly Corte and Henderson.
The Terriers reeled off an 18-yard touchdown run by Henderson at the 1:44 mark of the first quarter to tie the game, while they took the lead again on its next series when Yancey connected with Peyton Barrios for a 9-yard score and a 14-7 advantage with 9:45 remaining in the second quarter.
Vandebilt Catholic added a Henderson 36-yard touchdown run with 7:27 remaining in the second quarter and a 10-yard run by Corte at the 4:50 mark of the first half for a 28-7 lead.
Morgan City responded with a touchdown late in the first half when Kevon Marsh rumbled 57 yards to the end zone with 51 seconds remaining.
However, Vandebilt responded before halftime when Thomas St. Martin scored on a 1-yard run with 10 seconds remaining in the half for a 35-13 lead.
“Defensively, all year we’ve been giving up points like this,” Morgan City coach Scott Tregle said. “We got guys out there that want to play and want to hustle. We just get outmanned upfront. It happened every game this year except for two, and the two games it didn’t happen we won. Offensively, we can do some good stuff, but our defense, we never get off the field. We never get a team to punt.”
Vandebilt got the ball to start the second half and picked up right where it left off with touchdown runs of 13 and 2 yards, respectively, by Henderson at the 7:53 mark of the third quarter and the 1:51 mark of the third period.
Henderson led the Terriers with 17 carries for 136 yards and four touchdowns, while Corte had 17 carries for 112 yards and a score.
Michael Lecompte capped the Terrier’s scoring with a 2-yard run with 8:50 remaining in the fourth quarter for a 55-13 advantage.
Lecompte had 14 carries for 52 yards and a score.
Vandebilt finished the game with 54 carries for 276 yards and 23 first downs. They totaled 328 yards of offense.
Morgan City managed two touchdowns late via runs of 31 and 3 yards by Jacolbi Francois. The first score came with 4:14 remaining, while the second was with 4 seconds left in the game.
Francois rushed seven times for 38 yards and two scores and caught three passes for 21 yards.
Through the air, Tolento completed 8 of 16 passes for 126 yards.
Jones led Morgan City’s receivers with five catches for 105 yards.
Morgan City (2-7, 0-3) will return to action Friday when it closes its season against Assumption.

Morgan City High School Box Score
MCHS VCHS First downs: 11 23
Rushing yards: 156 276
Passing yards: 126 52
Total yards: 282 328
A-C-HI: 17-8-0 8-3-0
Punts-avg.: 3-26.3 0-0

Score by Quarters
MCHS: 7 6 0 13 -- 26
VCHS: 7 28 13 7 -- 55

Scoring Summary
First Quarter
MCHS: Hector Tolento 1-yard run (Irving Delgado kick) 6:21

VCHS: O’Shawn Henderson 18-yard run (Jonah Pitre kick) 1:44

Second Quarter
VCHS: David Yancey 9-yard pass to Peyton Barrios (Kick good) 9:45

VCHS: Henderson 36-yard run (Kick good) 7:27

VCHS: Gage Corte 10-yard run (Kick good) 4:50

MCHS: Kevon Marsh 57-yard run (Kick blocked) 0:51
VCHS: Thomas St. Martin 1-yard run (Kick good) 0:10

Third Quarter
VCHS: Henderson 13-yard run (Kick failed) 7:53

VCHS: Henderson 3-yard run (Kick good) 1:51

Fourth Quarter
VCHS: Michael Lecompte 2-yard run (Kick good) 8:50

MCHS: Jacolbi Francois 31-yard run (Kick good)

MCHS: Marsh 3-yard run (Kick failed) 0:04

Morgan City Individual Stats
Passing
Hector Tolento, 8-16-0 126 yds; Abram Hartley, 0-1-0 0 yds

Receiving
Jaylen Jones, 5-105; Jacolbi Francois, 3-21

Rushing
Kevon Marsh, 18-126, TD; Jacolbi Francois, 7-38, 2 TDs; Ethan Scioneaux, 3-14; Jaylen Jones, 1-10; Clifton Escort, 1-(-2); Abram Hartley, 1-(-8); Hector Tolento, 5-(-22)