Ellender tops Morgan City 35-7 in District 7-4A action

Behind the arm of Lynn Parfait and the Patriots’ ground game, Ellender defeated Morgan City 35-7 in District 7-4A action Friday.
Parfait completed 8 of 16 passes for 146 yards and three scores. He also rushed 14 times for 56 yards.
Hunter Parfait (no relation) caught all three touchdown passes as he finished with four receptions for 79 yards
“That was a good combination,” Ellender coach David McCormick said. “Hunter’s a young one for us. He’s a sophomore. Lynn stepped in as our quarterback this week and did a good job, running the ball also, so I was impressed by his play on the offensive side.”
Ellender (2-6 overall, 1-3 in District 7-4A action) totaled 397 yards of offense (251 rushing and 146 passing).
Its defense was stingy, particularly its run defense, which limited Morgan City to 22 carries for minus-16 yards. Morgan City had 39 yards of offense.
“Their record’s deceiving,” Morgan City Coach Chris Stroud said of Ellender. “That’s a very talented team, and they had a tough schedule in nondistrict. They still made a lot of mistakes and gave us some chances. We just didn’t take advantage of them.”
The win was Ellender’s first since week 2 against Grace King and also was the Patriots’ first district victory.
“The kids had a great week of practice and it showed today. … We were relaxed,” McCormick said. “We were flying around on the field. We struggled a little bit on the offensive side in the second quarter, but defense did a great job keeping Morgan City’s offense out of the end zone.”
Ellender scored touchdowns on its first two drives as Tysean Hunter scored on a 19-yard run with 9:36 remaining in the first quarter, while Justin Navy added a 6-yard run on the Patriots’ second drive with 3:40 remaining in the first quarter.
The Patriots added one more first-half touchdown as Lynn Parfait connected with Hunter Parfait on a 14-yard touchdown with 4:59 remaining in the second quarter.
Morgan City (2-5, 0-4) scored its lone touchdown of the game on the ensuing kickoff as Kerwin Francois fielded the kickoff and sped past the Ellender special teams unit for an 87-yard score with 4:43 remaining in the first half. Andy Rangel’s point-after attempt cut Morgan City’s deficit to 20-7.
“Morgan City’s special teams has been doing a pretty good job for them this season,” McCormick said.
Ellender added a touchdown on its opening drive of the third quarter as Lynn Parfait connected with Hunter Parfait on a 39-yard completion to cap the drive with 10:37 remaining in the quarter. Lynn Parfait’s two-point run was good for a 28-7 Ellender lead.
The Patriots’ final score came with 1:05 remaining in the ballgame when Lynn Parfait connected on a 6-yard completion with Hunter Parfait for a touchdown.
Man Pham, who was 3-for-4 on point-after attempts, connected on his last attempt for the final margin.
In the loss, Morgan City did get to play quarterbacks Devonta Grogan and Tate Alcina, who have been out injured.
“They’re both rusty,” Stroud said. “They’re both not 100 percent, but it is good to see them back, and when they got out there, they both tried their tails off. I’ve got no qualms about our kids’ effort.”
It’s just simply the team is not healthy right now, and they are low on numbers, Stroud said.
Grogan, Alcina and Khai Hartley combined to finish 6-for-14 for 55 yards. Grogan led the trio with a 3-for-5 effort for 23 yards.
Mitchell Mancuso led Morgan City’s receivers with three catches for 28 yards.
Jahon Johnson led Ellender with 11 carries for 104 yards, while Hester added 14 carries for 72 yards and a score.
Morgan City will return to action Friday when it travels to Houma to face Vandebilt Catholic in district play.
“We still got a lot of work to do,” Stroud said. “We got two tough opponents coming up.”
Ellender will continue its season with a contest against E.D. White next week.