Covenant Christian's Landon Winslow gets a hand in the facemask of Central Catholic's Greg Hamer after intercepting a pass in Thursday's football game. Central Catholic won 48-12. Hamer made the tackle anyway, and Winslow was flagged for the facemask penalty.
The Review/Bill Decker
Young players step up for Central Catholic
A Central Catholic football team with senior leaders to spare got a boost from younger players in Thursday's 48-12 home district opener win against Covenant Christian.
Sophomore Tate Fontenot took the opening kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown that put the Eagles on top 7-0 17 seconds into the game.
Fontenot finished the night with 166 yards on four returns. He also intercepted one of the two passes Covenant quarterback Peyton Trosclair threw Thursday.
Fontenot's classmate, Benjamin Case, was called on for a second game to fill in for injured senior quarterback Caleb O'Con.
Case hit five of his nine passes for 86 yards, including a 58-yarder to Tylon Hollins.
Of course, the old hands played their part, too, led by running back Damondrick Blackburn. He needed only 13 carries to pile up 214 yards and five touchdowns in only three quarters.
His scores came on runs of 10, 2, 75, 1 and 5 yards.
Vernon Singleton caught two Case passes for 13 yards and picked up 27 rushing yards on a reverse. Hollins had two receptions for 67, and Greg Hamer caught a pass for 9 yards.
Thomas Nini rushed seven times for 27 yards and a 5-yard touchdown. Freshman Cash Baker ran six times for 65 yards and came within a yard of the end zone on a 25-yard run on the game's final play.
Defensively, Central Catholic throttled the visitors. The visiting Lions managed only 64 yards in total offense, led by Landon Winslow's 33 rushing yards and Trosclair's 22. Winslow also picked off a Central Catholic pass.
The Covenant offense played no role in either of the team's scores. Carsen Hebert returned a kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown, and Trosclair wrestled the ball from an Eagle rusher
and returned it 90 yards for a score.
Central Catholic put the 48 points on the board despite a pile of penalties, including six for 35 yards in the first quarter alone. Two of those penalties wiped out touchdown runs by Blackburn.
The Eagles finished with 10 penalties for 70 yards. Convenant Christian was flagged eight times for 50 yards.
Central Catholic, 3-1, will be at Jeanerette on Sept. 30. Covenant Christian,1-2, will play Hanson Memorial in Houma.