It’s only week 5, but we might have just seen Louisiana high school’s game of the year.
That was the sentiment of everyone in the crowd when the final knee was taken by St. Edmund Blue Jays QB Kane West, capping off St. Ed’s 46-42 victory over the Opelousas Catholic Vikings, the first time the Blue Jays had defeated district rival OC since 2013. Hugs were given, tears were shed, and the entire St. Edmund community could finally breathe for the first time in 3 and a half hours.
This game was electric from the start, with two quick TD drives in the first two minutes and a combined 36 points in the first 8 and a half. OC starting quarterback Kross Gillen kicked things off with an explosive pass to Maurice Marcel on the 2nd play from scrimmage, which Haden Jennings paid off two plays later to make the first dent into the scoreboard. Kross Gillen produced big plays in the bunches through the air today, finishing the game 10/22 for a whopping 315 yards and 3 TDs.
The response was immediate from the Blue Jays, as just two plays later, Kane West found Seth Aucoin for a passing touchdown of their own. However, with no apparent kicker on the team, St. Edmund was forced to go for two, failing the conversion with a Kane West QB keeper. OC would lead 7-6 early in the game because of this, but the 2pt conversions eventually won the game for St. Edmund as they finished the game 5/6 on the 2pt tries. What play did they call on those 6 attempts? The exact same QB keeper with Kane West. After the initial stop, the play was unbeatable for the rest of the game. Kane West finished the game with 3 goal line rushing TDs to go along with the 5 2pt conversions. The St. Edmund O-line dominated on the goal line.
After the only touchdown drive of more than 6 plays the entire game by St. Edmund to make it 14-7, we saw a flurry of explosions from both teams. The very next play from scrimmage is a 77 yard TD pass from Kross Gillen to Rowen Bergeron for OC. Two plays later, Henry Summerlin has a 60 yard run that Kane West punches in for a St. Ed TD. Then on the first play of the 2nd quarter, Kross Gillen launches another bomb to Rowen Bergeron, a 64 yard TD for the OC Vikings. One play into the 2nd quarter, St. Ed led 22-21.
The rest of the 2nd quarter was fairly tame, with both defenses able to force a series of three-and-outs. Henry Summerlin eventually broke it open again with the most impressive touchdown run of the game to put St. Edmund ahead by 2 scores. Henry Summerlin would finish the game with an astonishing stat line – 22 carries, 250 yards, 1 TD. Then Kross Gillen launched his 3rd touchdown pass of the 1st half for OC, this time to Roderick Tezeno for 56 yards to give us our halftime score of 30-28 St. Edmund.
The second half saw both defenses able to adjust and largely stop the dynamic attacks that these offenses were able to bring. A Wyatt Dubois punt return TD was the only scoring (giving St. Ed a 10 point lead) before tragedy struck for Opelousas Catholic. Kross Gillen balled out in the first half, but on a weird-looking hit during an incomplete pass, he went down with a foot injury and would not return for the rest of the game. Who stepped in to take his place? Rowen Bergeron, the wide receiver who accounted for 200 of Gillen’s 315 passing yards. He was already playing both ways, having logged a PBU at CB in this game. For OC to have a chance to win this game, Bergeron was going to have to put on the cape and become superman.
This is what brought us to the first inflection point of the game. With 4:13 left in the 3rd quarter, down by 10, and their starting quarterback out for the game, OC found themselves in a 4th and 2 on the St. Ed 43 yard line. Staring down the barrel of giving the ball back to an electric Blue Jay offense down while by 10 points, the Vikings had to go for it, and they had to have it. A stop could give St. Edmund a chance to run away with the game. Instead, Rowen Bergeron put on the cape and kept it, not just for the first down, but for a 43 yard touchdown run to put the Vikings back within 3.
It became clear that Rowen Bergeron was one of the biggest keys to this game. He was playing both ways and multiple positions on offense, so while OC was trailing, if he went down, who knows what the offense would look like. The whole Viking fanbase had to hold their breath as Bergeron went down on a long run at the end of OC’s next drive, which ended in a punt. Luckily for the Vikings, it seemed to just be cramps, and OC avoided having to go to their 3rd string quarterback. Instead, he comes back into the game when a long St. Edmund drive stalls, and he leads the Vikings to another TD drive, this time to take the lead.
All of a sudden, St. Edmund found themselves without an offensive TD in the second half and trailing 42-38 with 5 minutes to go. They desperately needed another big play to take advantage of their best chance at beating OC in years, and they found it through the air. Kane West only completed 3 passes in this game, but one came at the most important time, a huge bomb to Blake Moran to get St. Edmund onto the goal line, where West and that O-line converted yet again to take the lead 46-42 with 2 minutes left in the game.
In a battle of the unbeatens, it all came down to one final drive. Can Rowen Bergeron lead one more TD drive for the Vikings? Can superman put the cape one one more time?
He did his best. Running out of time, he found chunk plays to keep the Vikings in the game. First, with 30 seconds left in the game, he found Haden Jennings on a controversial 4th and 10 conversion for 11 yards. The play could have been ruled an incomplete pass or a fumble that St. Edmund recovered (either of which would have ended the game), but on a day where many OC fans felt like every call was going against them, they finally got one to go their way in the most crucial part of the game. Then just a couple plays later, Bergeron found room to scramble for 30 yards all the way down to the 5 yard line with 10 seconds left in the game.
Up by 4 with 10 seconds left and their backs against the wall, St. Edmund found a way to win. Senior CB Koy Trahan picked off Rowen Bergeron in the endzone with just 5 seconds left on the clock to win the game for the Blue Jays.
It doesn’t feel great to lose a game like that, but there is no doubt that Rowen Bergeron gave everything he could for his team in this game. This was a legendary performance even in a losing effort. He had 4 catches for 200 yards and 2 TDs in the first half. Then he had to come in as the QB in the second half, after which he went 4/11 for 74 yards and an INT, and 12 rushes for 115 yards and 2 TDs. On top of all that, he had that aforementioned PBU at CB and 34 yards in punt returns. That gives him a total of 423 all purpose yards and 4 total touchdowns in the game.
Despite Bergeron’s performance, St. Edmund was able to prevail, and this was a huge win for the Blue Jays. St. Edmund hadn’t beaten Opelousas Catholic since 2013, and they had lost 8 games in a row to the Vikings. Since this was a battle of two 4-0 teams, this very well might have been St. Edmund’s closest competition in their district, giving the Blue Jays a great chance to win their district this season. It moves St. Edmund to 5-0, their best start to a season since 2008. St. Edmund will look to continue their amazing start to the season as they host Berchmans next week. Opelousas Catholic will look to bounce back next week as they travel to Westminster.
