By GEORGE MAHL

VACHERIE – They say football is a game of inches. That saying was proven true Friday night between St. Charles Catholic and St. James High School.

With less than 10 seconds left in the game, SCC quarterback Jeremy Catoire completed a 50 yard pass to wide receiver Jamall Singleton. This set up the final play of the game.

Catoire went back to the pass and connected with Singleton again. Only this time he fell about one yard short of a touchdown. More importantly, he was one yard short of capping of a miraculous comeback by the Comets as the Wildcats held on for a 25-20 thriller Friday night in Wildcat Stadium.

“I thought St. Charles was unbelievable with their execution in the second half,” said Wildcats head coach Rick Gaille.

After building a 25-0 halftime lead, the Comets appeared to grab the momentum back in the second half. Tyrell Fenroy took the second half kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown to put the Comets on the board. 25-7 then quickly became 25-14 after SCC blocked a St. James punt to give the Comets excellent field position at the St. James 29 yard line.

The Comets then scored from 8 yards out when Rod Remondet ran it in to cut the SJ lead to two touchdowns. A 13-play, 64-yard drive that took up about two and a half minutes, was capped off when Jeremy Catoire found Brian Huber in the end zone to pull SCC within five points. Several key plays on the drive by the Comets kept the drive alive. On fourth and six, Catoire (11-35, 156 yards passing) found Singleton for a 49-yard completion to keep the drive alive.

Two more pass connections, one on third down and one on fourth down, from Catoire to Singleton set things up first and ten for St. Charles Catholic at the Wildcat 19. The Wildcats appeared to have killed the drive when on third down Catoire threw an incompletion.

However, a roughing the passer penalty was called, thus giving new life to the visiting team. On the next play, Catoire found Brian Huber in the end zone for a nine yard touchdown pass. However, Desi Steib recovered the Comet onside kick to seal the victory.

“Usually your team learns more in a lose than in a win. I’m hoping though that we learn just as much from this win as we would a loss,” Gaille added.

In the first half, things got off to a rocky start for SCC. The second play of the game saw SJ quarterback Blake Falgoust find David Johnson for a 68-yard touchdown to put the Wildcats up 6-0.

On their next possession, St. Charles fumbled deep in Wildcat territory. The loose ball was picked up by Desi Steib and returned 95 yards for a touchdown. This made the score 12-0 with 6:08 remaining in the first quarter. Another fumble by the Comets led to St. James scoring their third touchdown of the game. A four-play, 24-yard drive was finished off when fullback Melvin Dumas took it in from the six.

St. Charles finished with 254 yards total offense. Fenroy caught 12 passes for 84 yards for the Comets.