In round 2 of the LHSAA Select Division II playoffs, the Madison Prep Chargers faced off against the St. Louis Catholic Saints. Madison, with the eight seed, was given a first round bye as St. Louis beat Northside (Lafayette) 23-0 last week. The winner of this matchup will go up against St. Thomas More who defeated Helen B. Cox 55-0
St. Louis won the opening kickoff and elected to receive the ball to start the game. The Saints opened up the game with a 15 yard screen pass to senior receiver Grant Evans and a 30 yard rush from their quarterback, James Reina. After a false start penalty pushed them back, Chargers’ linebacker Markeis Batiste made his presence known with a big hit on the Saints’ running back. While the Saints were marching down field with their run heavy offense, the Chargers’ defenders held their own. Following a big stop by Zachary Stewart, the Saints decided to go for a 4th and 7 on the Chargers 20 yard line. As Reina tried to roll out, senior safety Treylan James came up and delivered the big hit to turn the ball over on downs.
Madison would take over at their own 31 yard line, but St. Louis’ first drive had taken up over about 8 minutes of the first quarter. Madison would lean on the running game of junior running back Tony Lewis. Lewis would have back-to-back positive gains for the Chargers, until they were pushed back on a false start penalty. After an incompletion on third down, the Chargers were forced to punt the ball back to the Saints. Sophomore punter Bernard Kirk would help the Chargers’ defense as his 48 yard punt placed the Saints’ at their own 3 yard line
In the second quarter, The Saints would start their drive around midfield in their own territory. The Chargers defense showed out like they have all season as they didn’t allow the Saints’ offense to get anything. On the first play, Markeis Batiste showed off his pass rushing ability with a sack on first down. Ahmaad Lewis and Zachary Stewart would make their presence known on this drive as well with a big stop on second down. Following an incompletion on third down, the Saints would be forced to punt the ball to Madison.
Madsion had a few communication problems trying to relay the plays to the quarterback and would cause them to have back-to-back false start penalties. After three straight handoffs to running back Tony Lewis, Madison punted the ball back to St. Louis.
St. Louis would go back to the running back but Jonathan Profit and Zachary Stewart would drive the Saint’s back on a loss of two yards. Saints’ quarterback Reina would find Grant Evans on a 21 yard reception as David Jones delivered a huge tackle on the play. Reina would keep the ball on a quarterback keeper on back-to-back plays but Amhad Lewis and Taron Cage forced Reina to just a few yards. Graham Montet would line up at the wildcat quarterback on third down and give the Saints a first down in Charger territory. Following a false start penalty and a couple of quarterback keepers, senior linebacker Christian Walker would come up and deliver a big sack on fourth down.
In the second half, the Chargers would start off with the ball and lean towards the workhorse, Tony Lewis. On back-to-back runs, Tony Lewis would gain a first down for the Chargers. Following back-to-back incompletions, the Chargers were forced to punt the ball back to St. Louis.
As the Bernard Kirk punt would go for a touchback, the Saints would start their drive at their own 20 yard line. After a quarterback keeper, the Saints’ would try to run a trick play with a double pass but defender David Jones was all over it and forced the incompletion. Jonathan Profit forced a sack on the very next play. Javin Lee would make an incredible dive to force an incompletion and the Saints punted the ball back to the Chargers. Madison would go back to Tony Lewis as he would gain 10 yards on consecutive plays.The Chargers would get into penalty trouble as two unnecessary roughness penalties pushed the Chargers back as they were not able to get anything going after a third and very long. They would have to punt the ball back to St. Louis.
St. Louis would take over in the fourth quarter with about 9 minutes left on the clock. In the fourth both offenses struggled to get anything going. Madison would have the ball around midfield but, St. Louis Catholic would come up with a huge interception with less than 2 minutes on the clock. As the Saints would start the drive at their own 30 yard line. Following a quick reception by the Saints’ receiver, David Jones made his presence known with back-to-back huge hits. Those stops by Jones would force a St. Louis punt with about five minutes remaining in the game.
St. Louis’ defense would come up clutch as junior Luke Mere would intercept a screen pass intended to Semaj Pierre with about 2 minutes. The Saints would go back to their power running back Montet and line him up at the wildcat quarterback position. Following back-to-back stops by Ahmaad Lewis and Jonathan Profit, St. Louis would go for it on fourth down in Charger territory. As Riena would step back in the pocket, junior Kejuan Eackles came up with an incredible sack on fourth down as the fourth quarter ended.
With both teams not able to get any points on the scoreboard in regulation, we would go to overtime. The Chargers would win the overtime coin toss and elected to defend first. First play, the Saints’ looked for Grant Evans on a fade route but David Jones would break it up. The Chargers’ defense on fourth down would draw an offsides penalty which would put the Saint at the 1 yard line on fourth down. Quarterback Reina had some trouble controlling the snap as the Chargers’ defense stuffed the offense back and delivered a huge fourth down stop.
As the Chargers would possess the ball at the 10 yard line, they would look for their workhorse Tony Lewis. Following back-to-back runs by Lewis, he was able to punch the ball in on third down and give Madison Prep the win in overtime.
In a defensive battle, the Chargers would go on to win 6-0 over St. Louis. Madison will go up against the number one seed in their bracket, St. Thomas More next Friday November 25th. St. Thomas will be looking to get revenge after Madison was able to pull away with the win last year.
