By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

 

LAPLACE — St. Charles Catholic’s reign as Class 3A state champion has come to an end.

Second-seeded Notre Dame took a 14-0 first half lead and stymied a St. Charles second half rally, halting the Comets’ eight game winning streak via a 27-7 regional round playoff victory.

“We didn’t give it away,” said St. Charles coach Frank Monica. “They outright beat us. We had to play a lot better to win this game … We really needed to play a perfect game, and we fell short of that.”

The game was a rare early round matchup of two teams ranked within the top five of the LSWA poll, as Notre Dame was ranked third and St. Charles, seeded 18^th in power points, was ranked fourth to close the regular season. St. Charles, however, has played such a matchup in each of its past two second round games; its regional matchup with Patterson last season pitted 3A’s No. 1 and 2 against one another.

The champions didn’t go down to the Pioneers without a fight. After consecutive come-from-behind victories in each of their last two games, St. Charles (8-3) appeared primed to make a trifecta when Conner Western blocked an E.D. White punt, leading to a Brandon Zimmer 1-yard touchdown run with 4:29 left in the third quarter.

The Comets marched 10 plays, hammering it in on its third crack from the 1-yard line. Quarterback Austin Weber rushed for 25 yards and connected with Chad McNeil to convert a key third-and-10 to extend the drive.

“We talked about how defending champs die hard,” said Notre Dame coach Louis Cook. “Some of our guys were on our 2009 team that won it all, so they understood. We knew (St. Charles) wouldn’t go away.”

St. Charles stopped Notre Dame on the ensuing Pios’ possession, Sam McMahon and Luke Jackson combining to sack Notre Dame (10-1) quarterback Brad Stoma on third down to force a punt.

Notre Dame’s defense responded in kind, sacking Weber twice to force a three-and-out themselves.

“There were some calls I’d like to have back,” said Monica. “I didn’t handle that possession well … We didn’t have many at-bats, because Notre Dame controlled the ball. Our defense played well to keep us in it, and with a lot of heart. We didn’t help them enough offensively.”

The teams again traded stops. But Notre Dame was getting the better end of it in terms of field position, and took over with 8:48 remaining at SCC’s 47. The Pioneers marched to the 29 and converted a key fourth-and-three on a Stoma 14-yard completion to Austin Thibodaux. On a third-and-six, Stoma came up with another conversion to John Michael Besse. Two play later, Stolla kept in on a sneak into the endzone to push the lead to 20-7 with 3:43 left.

St. Charles couldn’t rally. Weber was flushed from the pocket and pressured on a fourth down pass from the SCC 38 and was unable to get off a clean throw to Garrett Lubin. The ball fell incomplete with 3:19 left. Notre Dame added a 2-yard Thibodaux touchdown run to cap it’s scoring and officially advance onward.

One week after Notre Dame won its bi-district matchup with Patterson by rushing for over 400 yards and passing for none, Stolla came up big through the air. St. Charles’ defense forced numerous third down passing situations, but Stolla converted six third or fourth downs in the first half through the air, two with 10 or more yards to go. He completed 12-of-15 passes for 157 yards.

“We knew they like to take shots on first down. But I thought we could cover some of those things on third down, and we didn’t,” said Monica. “That was the thing that maybe surprised us a bit.”

Said Cook, “We know when we come up against a well-coached team, and St. Charles is, they’re going to take away tendencies and some of your best plays. We thought tonight might come down to the passing game and fortunately Brad stepped up big for us.”

Notre Dame broke a scoreless tie in the second quarter on Thibodaux’s first touchdown run, a 2-yarder with 5:18 left in the second quarter.

The Pioneers extended that to 14-0 on a 21-yard play action pass from Stolla to Kevin Frank on a go route.

Neither team turned the ball over.

St. Charles played without nose tackle Taylor Cochran and right tackle Patrick Juneau, each sitting out due to injury. 

SCC overcame a rocky 0-2 start following Hurricane Issac to rattle off eight straight wins and the District 7-3A championship. The Comets became the first SCC team in over 20 years to win back-to-back district crowns.

“I’m proud of the way they fought through adversity as the year went on,” said Monica. “A lot of our kids whose houses flooded still aren’t back in their houses. Three of our coaches as well … they put it aside every day to come to practice and play football.”