Two undefeated 5-0 teams met on Friday night as the Teurlings Catholic Rebels made the travel to take on the Westgate Tigers.
The Tigers, under head coach Ryan Antoine, entered the game on a roll after winning the Class 4A State Championship last season as they have averaged nearly 50 points per game while only giving up 12 points per game in their first five matchups. They also hold the state’s longest winning streak at 13 consecutive wins in a row. However, that streak will be put to the task when facing Dane Charpentier’s undefeated Teurlings Catholic squad.
In fact, the Rebels already stirred up some trouble when snapping the longest winning streak in the state of Louisiana as they snapped St. Charles Catholic’s 13 game winning streak with a 28-22 victory earlier this season. Usually, facing a highly skilled and athletic team like Westgate would phase a lot of teams, but the Rebels are not intimidated by any opposing team no matter how many consecutive wins they come in with. Before the game, I chatted with Coach Charpentier and he said that it would be incredible if the Rebels can mess with history once again.
“I love weird statistics, but we may end up being the first school to play two schools with the longest winning streak in the state. We knocked off the first one and now, we got to play the school that took their place.”
Teurlings Catholic Head Coach Dane Charpentier
Something would have to give here on one of the top matchups in the state. The game started off looking like that we were in for one of those offensive kind of nights. The Rebels, led by star junior quarterback Preston Welch , went right down the field 65 yards on their opening drive and scored on a one yard run by Tanner Brinkman to give Teurlings the early 7-0 lead. The Rebels took advantage of what was one of the surprising storylines throughout the state this season, which was that Westgate would be without its star five star safety and Texas commit Derek Williams, who did not play in the game. Coach Charpentier said that it substantially helped their offensive game plan without him being out there.
“How could they not miss him. He’s unbelievable. He’s an eraser. It’s hard to dial up any kind of – a successful play against these guys with Derek Williams in the game is five yards. Without him in the game, it might be 10 yards-plus.”
Teurlings Catholic head coach Dane Charpentier on how not having Derek Williams out there impacted the game.
The Tigers answered right back responding on an 8 play, 82 yard scoring drive, which was capped off with a 2-yard touchdown run by Louisiana Tech commit Dedrick Latulas to tie the game at 7-7 in the first quarter.
The Rebels picked up right where they started on the first drive and once again scored another touchdown on a five yard touchdown toss from Welch to KJ James, who also plays on the defensive line for the Rebels, but lined up at fullback on that play. Teurlings Catholic would take the lead again at 14-7.
After giving up a score on their first drive, the Rebels defense made it tough for the Westgate offense to move the football after that as the Rebels did a great job of containing the quarterback running game of Amaaz Eugene. Meanwhile, the Rebels offense sat on the lead and managed the rest of the first half while adding another field goal in the process from Charlie Mader to give the Rebels a 17-7 lead after the first 24 minutes of play.
In the second half, it was more of the same starting off as the stingy Rebels defense still made things difficult for the Tigers offense. The Rebels offense continued to add points to the scoreboard as early in the third quarter, Jack Purser had a one yard quarterback sneak touchdown run to give them a 24-7 cushion. Besides the touchdown run by Purser, the third quarter was pretty quiet as the score would remain that way heading into the fourth quarter.
After Mader continued his busy night with another field goal this time from 32 yards to make the score 27-7, Westgate’s offense started to wake up when Tavias Gordon scored a six yard touchdown to give the Tigers their first score since the opening drive with 8:41 remaining in the football game to make it a 27-14 game.
The Rebels really relied on the running game in the second half and had a long, methodical drive, which resulted in taking a lot of time off the clock and giving Mader his third successful field goal attempt off four tries to give them a 30-14 lead with just under two minutes left to go in the game. Then, things got interesting. Westgate scored in a real hurry with a 29 yard touchdown reception from Jaboree Antoine, who came in the game at quarterback, to Gordon followed by a successful two point conversion by Latulas to make the score 30-22.
Things got even more interesting when Westgate recovered the onside kick giving themselves a chance with 39 seconds left to play in the game.
However, Teurlings Catholic’s defense stepped up in the face of adversity and denied the Tigers’ final chance as Carter Fontenot makes a great tackle in bounds thus ending the game. Once again, Teurlings Catholic put an end to the state’s longest winning streak and came away with a 30-22 victory.
“It is a huge accomplishment to get a win against two teams that had the state’s longest winning streak. Wins like this are hard to come by. Westgate is a good football team, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they go on another run.”
Teurlings Catholic head coach Dane Charpentier
The Teurlings Catholic Rebels once again ended a winning streak, but they are quietly starting one of their own as Charpentier’s squad continues their undefeated season improving to 6-0. The schedule does not get any easier as next week, the Rebels will take on the LCA Knights on Thursday, which has been one of the top programs in the state regardless of class over the last five years.
Meanwhile, the Westgate Tigers will look to rebound after their winning streak was snapped today. Next week, Coach Antoine’s squad will make the travel to North Vermilion on Friday.
Final Stats:
Teurlings Catholic:
- QB Preston Welch completed 10 of 17 passes for 139 yards and a touchdown.
- WR Kentrell Prejean had five catches for 71 yards.
- Coach Charpentier wanted the running game to become more consistent and it was Friday night as Tanner Brinkman had 19 carries for 84 yards and a touchdown. Overall, the Rebels ran for 188 yards total on the night.
- The Rebels defense was dominant all night long holding an explosive Tigers’ team to only 22 points and 258 total yards while also having four sacks and an interception.
Westgate:
- In what was a disappointing night offensively for the Tigers, two bright spots were the two running backs Dedrick Latulas and Tavias Gordon. Both running backs accounted for all of the Tigers’ points. Latulas finished with 81 yards on eight carries and Gordon finished with 51 yards on 11 carries while also having five catches for 82 yards and a touchdown.
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