It was a great football appetizer before the full course meal begins next week as high school football jamborees kickoff across the state of Louisiana, and Thursday night’s action featured an exciting doubleheader at Memorial Field. First, the Episcopal Knights took on the Pearl River Rebels while the Ascension Catholic Bulldogs took on the St. Michael Warriors.
Episcopal vs. Pearl River:
In the first game, it was actually the Pearl River Rebels that struck first as All-State running back Tashod Badon had a 96 yard kickoff return for a touchdown to put the Rebels up top 7-0, but the Knights immediately responded with a methodical 76 yard drive that took over six minutes off the clock with a five yard touchdown plunge from Reid Chauvin to tie the game up at 7 a piece.
Episcopal would then go on another scoring drive from 64 yards out thanks to back to back big runs from Chauvin and his counterpart Nathan Sanchez as Sanchez was the one to break the tie and give the Knights a 14-7 lead.
The Knights would carry that seven point advantage to the half. The Knights would muff the kick return and give the Rebels the ball in plus territory, but on fourth and short, Taj Callahan forced a fumble on Badon and Episcopal defensive back Neff Neumann scooped it up and scored on a 69 yard touchdown to give them a 21-7 lead.
However, Pearl River will not go away quietly as Sean Jenkins scores a touchdown on a 72 yard scoring strike from Romy Berel to pull within a score at 21-14, but every time the Rebels made a play, the Knights just responded. After a big kickoff return by Sanchez, Knights quarterback Zach Hu rolled out to the right and found Chauvin for a 25 yard touchdown.
Pearl River would march down the field on a long drive and punched the football in for a touchdown from Badon, but time ran out and the Knights were able to hang on to a 28-21 victory over the Rebels.
The Knights’ featured running back Reid Chauvin finished with 91 yards and a touchdown on six carries while also adding a receiving touchdown to total 116 all-purpose yards and two total touchdowns.
While the Knights have to replace the other star running back in Gridiron Football All-American Braeden George, Nathan Sanchez has shown to be a really good replacement with three carries for 33 yards and a touchdown while also adding 61 yards in kickoff returns. Zach Hu only attempted three passes but completed all of them for 44 yards and the scoring toss to Chauvin. For head coach Travis Bourgeois, it was the play of his new offensive line group that made the difference in the success of the offense.
“We’re going to review the film, and the more they see on film, the more we can correct and recognize what they did well. This is a young group, and they’ll build confidence as the season progresses.”
“We have a lot of confidence in these guys. Tonight, we didn’t have as many offensive plays to get a lot of work in, but like I said, the main objective is to stay healthy and get ready for Week 1.”
Episcopal Head Coach Travis Bourgeois
On the other side, Pearl River had a great outing from their star running back Tashod Badon, who finished with 102 yards on 15 carries and a touchdown run plus 98 yards and a kickoff return for a touchdown to total 200 all-purpose yards and two scores.
Romy Berel finished the game completing 2 of 6 passes for 77 yards including the 72 yard score to Sean Jenkins.
The Episcopal Knights will start the 2024 season next Friday against the St. Michael Warriors while the Pearl River Rebels will begin theirs next Friday against St. Martin’s Episcopal.
Ascension Catholic vs. St. Michael:
The second game of the Battle on the Ridge doubleheader featured two programs with high expectations this season as the Ascension Catholic Bulldogs hired former St. James, LSU, and UTSA QB Lowell Narcisse as their head coach while the St. Michael Warriors are trying to build on one of their best seasons in program history last season under head coach Zach Leger.
With St. Michael’s defense focusing in on Ascension Catholic’s star running back Chad Elzy, Ascension Catholic’s new starting quarterback Camille LeBouef opened up the offense by throwing two touchdown passes to Cy Landry and Johnny Viallon in the first half to give the Bulldogs a 14-0 lead heading into halftime. LeBouef looked like a veteran as he finished the game completing 8 of 10 passes for 81 yards and two scores.
While the first half was about Ascension Catholic’s passing game, it was the Chad Elzy show in the second half as the Gridiron Football Player of the Year finalist ran for two touchdowns to put the game on ice at 27-0. Elzy opened the season rushing for 102 yards and two touchdowns on nine carries.
“It’s complementary football. A lot of people try to complicate football by opening it up, but it’s simpler than that. If they give you on on one matchups, you have to find ways to put your players in position to win those matchups.”
Ascension Catholic Head Coach Lowell Narcisse
As impressive as the offense was, the Bulldogs’ defense was just as impressive by pitching a shutout. St. Michael’s offense was limited to only 53 total yards. Quarterback Brock Hamilton finished the game completing 4 of 11 passes for 16 yards while running back John Martinez was a bright spot rushing for 34 yards on seven carries.
“It’s not about how we start it. It’s about how we finish. We did a tremendous job of staying true to who we are: trusting the run, finishing blocks, and finishing tackles. It wasn’t perfect, but it was enough to get exactly what we needed.”
Ascension Catholic Head Coach Lowell Narcisse
The Bulldogs will kickoff the season against H.L. Bourgeois next Thursday while the Warriors will begin their regular season against the Episcopal Knights next Friday.
Check out Jace’s game coverage this season!
Special shoutout to Alex Allison for the stats and Darryl Felker Jr. for the footage!
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