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By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

 

LAPLACE — The start to St. Charles Catholic’s first spring scrimmage ever as a defending state champion almost seemed poetic in a way.

It did not kick off with a battle between offense and defense, but with literal kicks — Patrick Juneau booming high punts as the special teams worked on their coverage to begin things.

It served to show that for the Comet program, the little things that go largely unnoticed by the masses will always take precedence — an outlook that’s resulted in an unreal consistency over Frank Monica’s tenure as coach.

Saturday morning’s scrimmage saw three touchdowns, two by the second team and one by the first team.

“I thought our emotion and bounce were pretty good today,” said Monica. “I was pleased with it overall … We’ve had some very sloppy practices, and this was an improvement.”

Defense controlled the action for much of the morning, led by defensive tackle Taylor Cochran and linebacker Luke Jackson, each of whom have carried over the momentum from exceptional seasons — and, for each, an exceptional championship game — into the spring. The Comets offense scored on consecutive possessions near the end of the scrimmage, with the first team shut out until its second-to-last possession.

“(The offense) has had problems blocking both of those guys for the entire spring,” said Monica. “We hope the defense can really hold things down before our offense catches up a bit.”

St. Charles was without quarterback Jemal Baptiste, perhaps the early frontrunner to start next season. He was sidelined after two days of spring with a hip flexor injury.

In his stead, the Comets worked with Austin Weber and Connor Western handling duties at quarterback primarily.

 “We don’t know (if Baptiste will be the starter),” said Monica. “We’ll be prepared to go with Austin Weber, with Connor Western as his backup at this time … We couldn’t really evaluate (Baptiste) due to the injury.”

Weber, a sophomore-to-be, is already well known to Comet fans after doing a strong job filling in at running back for injured teammates Marcus Hall and Lazedrick Thompson during the playoffs last season.

“(Not having Baptiste) doesn’t limit our offense, but it changes what we do,” said Monica. “We got away from our West Coast stuff and we want to get back to that.”

The second team offense and defense were on the field when SCC’s first touchdown came via the legs of Erron Lewis, who broke loose on a 70-yard touchdown run on the first play of that possession.

“He’s a home run hitter,” said Monica. “He hasn’t learned the system completely yet. He’s got good vision and exceptional quickness. I think he has a bright, bright future. He’s a guy that needs 15-20 touches in a game.”

The defense of all three Comet units, first through third, took over from there. The first team had an opportunity to put points up after marching across the 50 after a pair of receptions by Brandon Zimmer (one deep down the seam) and another by Chad McNeil. But Jackson blew up a run in the backfield, helping to set up an interception by Sam McMahon to end the drive.

Later in the scrimmage, though, both first and second team offenses found a spark via the “Comet” offense, a variation of the single-wing or “Wildcat” that lines up a running back as the de-facto quarterback on a play.

Both Weber and Lewis ran the ball well from the formation on a second team drive, and a nine-play drive ended with a one-yard plunge by Lewis for his second touchdown of the day. The drive included eight runs and one 10-yard completion, from Weber to Trey Sutherland.

The first team got on the board on the very next possession, on a wide receiver screen pass from Weber to Garrett Lubin that went for a 70-yard score.  

In all, Monica had few complaints after the Comets’ first scrimmage as champion, but he did offer a warning to his players.

“Everyone wants to knock you off that (15-game winning) streak you’ve got,” said Monica. “But they need to understand that now, everything last year’s team did is in the past. I tell them, ‘You have to make your own history.’

“These kids, I think, realize the very tough standard that’s been set. The bar has been raised.”