LAPLACE — St. John the Baptist Parish will be home to another in-parish rivalry game on Friday.

The Riverside Academy Rebels (5-1) will trek a few miles to St. Charles Catholic (6-1) in what promises to be a great match-up.

“There is a lot at stake with the (District 12- 2A) championship on the line,” St. Charles Catholic head football coach Frank Monica said. “You’re talking about power ranking. Your challenges are getting your team to play at a high level in a game like this, of this magnitude; and minimize mistakes.”

Riverside head football coach Bill Stubbs said the challenges don’t come from where the team is located.

“The challenges come from the type of football team that they are, who they are,” Stubbs said. “They are very well coached. I think they are a very hard-nosed football team. I think playing an in-parish team adds a lot more flavor, but I don’t think it will bring any new challenges.”

Neither coach is worried about the pressure to win this week.

“It’s important that they learn how to play under a little pressure,” Monica said. “It’s a good deal to have a little rivalry like this, and it prepares you for the future.”

Stubbs said he is more worried about the team the Rebels will be playing than anything else.

“I don’t know if the kids feel more pressure to win this week,” Stubbs said. “From a coach’s standpoint, we don’t change anything that we do from week in to week out. We take each opponent at face value. We watch them. We break them down. We know who they are and what they do. We put our game plan together based on what we see and where we feel we might have some advantages.”

Monica agreed there is no added pressure to win this week just because his team is playing a rival who is arguably just as good as the Comets.

“It might be more pressure for the fans, the players, the media and the public,” Monica said.

“We try to prepare the same way each week. You can’t change the way you do things because there will be another game next week. You can’t change to the point where you’ll violate your principles and things that you do. You just have to do it better.”

Monica said he likes the rivalry between the Comets and the Rebels.

“It’s good that the rivalry is there and we’re playing each other again,” Monica said. “For a number of years we didn’t play each other. I think it is good for the fan base, good for the district and good for River Parish football.”

Stubbs said he wouldn’t coach the game like it’s an inter-parish rivalry.

“We just go play football,” Stubbs said. “They are a really good team across the board. They don’t have a lot of weaknesses. They had a good quarterback at the beginning of the season. He got injured and they replaced him with a quarterback that is just as good, if not even better. They’ve got good football players across the board, so we have to play very, very well.”

 

By Courtney Griggs