Patterson, Morgan City football teams open at home; CCHS on the road

Friday night football action will kick off in the Tri-City area with two home games and one away game.
Morgan City will host Erath, while Patterson will welcome Lafayette to St. Mary Parish. The area’s lone Friday away game will feature Central Catholic traveling to Loreauville.
All games will begin at 7 p.m.
Below is a preview of this week’s action.
Morgan City
vs. Erath
Injuries already have affected Morgan City as the Tigers will open their season down multiple starters who play both ways.
However, Morgan City coach Chris Stroud said the Tigers have made adjustments and have a good offensive and defensive game plan for Friday night after losing some players to injuries during last week’s scrimmage against H.L. Bourgeois.
“We got a couple guys that’s going to play a little out of position, but the problem is depth wise,” Stroud said. “If that guy goes down then we really have to juggle more people around.”
This week’s opponent, Erath, scrimmaged Loreauville a week ago.
Stroud said the Bobcats return four of five offensive starters, while on defense, eight starters return from a year ago.
Offensively, they will run a spread offense.
“They’ve got a new quarterback, but he spins it well,” Stroud said. “He’s not quite as good as the guy they had last year but he’s still a good looking kid at quarterback. I think offensively they want to run the ball more this year behind that good offensive line, but they still are very efficient in what they do in the passing game with the RPO (run-pass option) game.
Defensively, he said the Bobcats show multiple looks.
“Defensively, they are always sound,” Stroud said. “They’re lined up right and run well to the ball.”
Patterson vs.
Lafayette High
Friday night’s season opener will be a battle of new coaches as Patterson High, led by coach Zach Lochard, will face Lafayette High, led by Cedric Figaro.
Patterson enters Friday’s contest after scrimmaging South Lafourche a week ago, while Lafayette faced St. Michael the Archangel.
“Lafayette is a really well coached team. … Coach Figaro, their new first-year head coach, is clearly doing a tremendous job getting that program rallying around him,” Lochard said.
Lochard said the Lions’ defense is really good. The group is led by Thaos Figaro, the coach’s son and an Acadiana High transfer. Lochard says the defensive end is versatile and must be accounted for. He also said linebacker Oliver Craddock is a solid player.
Offensively, Lochard noted the play of the Lions’ quarterback.
“He really does everything well,” Lochard said. “He throws the ball. He runs the ball. He can make every throw.”
Offensive scheme wise, the Mighty Lions are multiple in their approach.
“They give you a lot of different formations and looks, so our defense has been preparing against those all week and we’re really going to just have to continue to prepare all the way up until kickoff to be able to put together our best performance and give ourselves an opportunity to win,” Lochard said.
Defensively, Lochard said the Mighty Lions also are multiple.
Central Catholic vs. Loreauville
The Central Catholic Eagles’ opponent for this week was supposed to be Vinton, but due to the effects of Hurricane Laura, the school was not able to play football this week.
Instead, the Eagles will face Loreauville, who also was looking for an opponent after Elton cancelled their football season this fall.
Central Catholic scrimmaged Berwick last week at Nicholls, while Loreauville faced Erath.
“Really, really good team speed,” Central Catholic coach Tommy Minton said of the Tigers.
Offensively, the squad is led by twins, quarterback Calep Jacob and wide receiver Collin Jacob.
In the scrimmage against Erath, Calep Jacob connected with Collin Jacob for four touchdown passes and in all, about six catches covering roughly 210 yards.
Collin Jacob m caught the game-winning touchdown pass against them with less than a minute remaining in Loreauville’s victory in Morgan City.
Loreauville runs a spread offense, while on defense, they utilize a 3-3 stack and a 4-2-5 look.
“They got a very veteran presence up front on the O-line and D-line,” Minton said. “A lot of those kids are returning starters, so that’s also an area that we got to look at.”