In front of the whole town of New Roads, Louisiana, the Catholic Pointe Coupee Hornets made a statement in a 26-22 win over the St. Edmund Blue Jays to take control of District 5-1A.
This Thursday night matchup was a big game between two of the top Class 1A programs in Louisiana and the winner was not only going to take a big step in the district championship race, but also the playoff race with a potential Top 3 seed.
With a lot of headlines and attention going towards St. Edmund’s explosive offense that has averaged over 50 points per game in their first seven games, all the Hornets’ defense did was hold the Blue Jays to less than half their average while also shutting out the offense in the second half led by Rory Lambert, Parker Jewell, and Cohen Higginbotham.
“I am so proud of our defense in the second half. That is a really good offense. They have explosive guys all over the field. They put up a ton of points against everybody. That was their first game they were held under 40 points. We made some adjustments. Credit goes to the defensive staff and our players for being able to make those plays on the fly and we got after them.”
Catholic Pointe Coupee HC Jacob Carruth
Trailing 22-19 at halftime, the Hornets’ offense was able to retake the lead with the only score of the second half as Jude Morrison used his legs to give Catholic Pointe Coupee a 26-22 lead.
“I have been playing with these guys my whole life. They are my brothers and I am going to do whatever I can and they are going to do whatever they can. We trust each other and we just play football the best we can and we know that we are going to win.”
Catholic Pointe Coupee QB Jude Morrison
The Hornets’ only score of the second half was enough as its defense stimied the Blue Jays’ offense, especially on fourth down. On seven fourth down attempts, there were only two fourth down conversions to keep drives alive.
The first half was an entertaining one as the connection between Jude Morrison and Brooks Capps struck early. Morrison connected with Capps on a leaping grab to set up a touchdown run by Myka Nipple and then, again, Morrison hit Capps, but this time for a long touchdown as Capps kept his balance and ran down the sidelines for a score to give the home team Hornets a 12-0 lead.
“The chemistry we have is awesome. Me and him throw after practice every single day. He’s a really good quarterback. We’ve been working on that all week. It was an out and up and I ended up finding the grass and getting a touchdown. That was a good ball.”
Catholic Pointe Coupee WR Brooks Capps
St. Edmund pulled within six when Henry Summerlin was able to score a touchdown to get the Blue Jays on the board, but then, would get into a two possession deficit after Kane West threw an interception to Kooper Burke that set up Morrison’s first touchdown run to make it 19-6.
The Blue Jays’ offense had its best sequence of the game late in the first half cashing in on two more touchdown runs from Henry Summerlin. Summerlin had a hat trick in the first half with three rushing touchdowns while also adding two more two point conversions from Summerlin and Gridiron Football All-American commit Blake Moran.
The two quick touchdowns gave the Blue Jays their first lead at 22-19 and they were able to take that lead into the locker room.
Summerlin proved to be the brightest spot of the night for the Blue Jays’ offense with 220 yards and three touchdowns on 27 carries.
That led into the second half where the Hornets’ defense took control of the football game to give second year head coach Jacob Carruth’s team an undefeated 8-0 start.
With a lot of guys playing both ways and not at 100 percent, Coach Carruth’s squad found a way to pull out a tough, gritty win, which is a perfect inflection of his program.
“This is what our kids are about. We’ve played some opponents closer than we should have, but we faced so much adversity this year. We have only 27 kids on the roster and we haven’t had 27 healthy kids since June. We have been down to even 18 guys some weeks. Facing that adversity and finding ways to win games when we were down prepared us for this moment. Our guys rose to the occasion.”
Catholic Pointe Coupee HC Jacob Carruth
This win was a big one for the Catholic Pointe Coupee community, but for Coach Carruth, the job is not finished.
“Staying focus. That has not been a problem for us. The past few weeks, we had a couple of throw a way games. Games like that, teams have trouble staying focus and locked in during the week knowing that it doesn’t matter if we don’t execute perfectly, we can win no matter what. That wasn’t the case with these guys. They showed up and they came to work. Parker Jewell said after the Westminster game in which we only won 14-9, he came into my office after that game and said, Coach, we are going to work and we are going to punch in that clock everyday. That’s what these guys are all about. They also have fun and love each other, but they come to work. The message is that we are not done and keep punching that clock. This is great. We are enjoying it tonight, but tomorrow, we are moving on.”
Catholic Pointe Coupee HC Jacob Carruth
The Hornets will end the regular season against Sacred Heart and Opelousas Catholic. Meanwhile, the St. Edmund Blue Jays (7-1) will look to bounce back next week against Bolton Academy and will end the regular season against Westminster Christian Academy.