Cardinal Rule: E.D. White Cardinals record mercy-rule win against MCHS

No. 14 Morgan City High School entered Wednesday’s Division III regional round contest looking to upset E.D. White in the second round for the second straight year in Thibodaux.
No. 3 E.D. White had other plans.
The Cardinals dominated Morgan City from nearly the start en route to an 8-0 mercy rule victory in a contest that was stopped with nearly seven minutes remaining in the second half.
E.D. White was spearheaded by Ethan King, who scored the Cardinals’ first five goals in the victory.
He had three goals in about the game’s first 16 minutes, including one about a minute into the game.
“We knew that they tried to play a high line because they (are) flat across the back, and we knew if we get balls in behind them that he would score,” E.D. White coach Roger Bimah said of King.
“We didn’t know that he was going to score five. We thought he’d get two or three if they kept playing the high line, and they didn’t make any adjustments, so we just kept exploiting that high line and getting behind them.”
Morgan City coach Trevor Patterson said his mistakes contributed to six of the Cardinals’ eight goals.
“No disrespect to E.D. White,” Patterson said. “They shut us out, but like I told my boys, even in the first half, the first two goals — three goals — was our mistakes. They had one good goal in the second half and then the last goal. Other than that, it was mistakes.
“Our defender passed it back twice to them, it was fumbled around. Irrelevant. E.D. White’s a great team, that’s why they’re ranked No. 3.”
However, Patterson said his squad should only have lost 2-0.
“E.D. White’s a better team than they were last year, and we’re not the same team as we were last year,” Patterson said. “We’re not, but I really didn’t think it was going to be a shutout. I didn’t think that.”
Asked if he mentioned to his squad last year’s second-round upset to Morgan City, Bimah said he didn’t.
“Actually, I didn’t bring that up, because I didn’t want to put any doubts in their minds at all,” he said. “I just brought up the two games we played them where we dominated them and got wide and scored. … We couldn’t do anything about what happened last year. Now this is a new year, and we had to come out and play like it was a different ball game, and we did that.”
Patterson said King didn’t hurt the Tigers in their first two games with the Cardinals.
Rather, he said they were more concerned about Ayden Duvernay, the Cardinal’s left back, coming in.
“That was the one that really stood out to us the first two games, but hey, everybody has a different game,” Patterson said.
After their three quick goals in about a 15-minute span, the Cardinals added another by King around the 27th minute when Morgan City goalie Daniel Valadez came out to attempt a save, but he couldn’t secure the ball and King continued to pursue it and knocked it into the goal.
Valadez made multiple saves in the first half for the Tigers, while multiple other shots by E.D. White were off the mark.
Offensively, Morgan City has struggled to score all year and the theme continued against the Cardinals.
The Tigers had a shot in about the 24th minute that was saved left of the goal by E.D. White’s goal keeper, while the Tigers had another shot later in the half that was wide right.
In the second half, Morgan City switched goalies, bringing Valadez out to play on offense.
Morgan City had a few shots in the second half, including one on its first possession and another by Valadez later in the half that the E.D. White goalie made a leaping save on.
However, the Tigers could get no offense going, and the Cardinals added four more goals — one by King in about the 42nd minute, another by Benjamin Foret in about the 47th minute, a goal by Collin Toups via a penalty kick and the final one with 6:46 remaining in the half by Andrew Adams, whose score ended the game via mercy rule.
Morgan City (10-14-2) will say good bye to five seniors: Trevor Beam, Robert Prejeant, Carlos Calderon and Mario Sanchez.
“Great group of seniors. … They will definitely be missed,” Patterson said.
E.D. White (13-8-5) will continue postseason play when it meets the winner of No. 11 St. Martinville and No. 6 Bolton in the Division III quarterfinals.