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Central Catholic turned the ball over multiple times in its season opener with Loreauville Thursday.
While Central Catholic's defense kept the game close, ultimately, those turnovers came back to haunt the squad as Loreauville scored a late touchdown with less than 20 seconds remaining for a 19-14 victory in Morgan City.
In all, the Eagles turned the ball over four times, but they only gave up one score off a turnover when the Tigers took a 13-7 lead with 6:58 remaining on an 11-yard touchdown run by Ethan Simon three plays after the Tigers recovered a fumble by Central Catholic quarterback Ryan Miller at the Eagles' 19.
Miller and the Eagles came right back, though, on a lengthy ensuing drive.
On third-and-goal from the Loreauville 4, Miller connected with Carter Williams for a four-yard touchdown completion with 2:12 remaining. Adlai Urbina, who was 2-for-2 on extra-point attempts, made the point-after attempt for a 14-13 Central Catholic lead.
However, Loreauville responded with the game-winning drive.
Caleb Jacob, who played quarterback along with starter Zy Alexander, completed all four of his passes on the next drive. The third of three-straight completions moved the ball to the Central Catholic 26 with 51.5 seconds remaining.
After Jacob rushed for two yards on first down, he threw two incomplete passes, setting up a fourth-down-and-7 situation at the Central Catholic 24.
Jacob completed the fourth down pass to his twin brother, Collin Jacob, for a 24-yard touchdown with 19.5 seconds remaining. Loreauville couldn't get the extra point off after a botched hold attempt but led 19-14.
After Damondrick Blackburn returned the ensuing kickoff to the Central Catholic 31, Loreauville sealed the game on the Eagles' first offensive play as Miller's deep ball was intercepted by Alexander.
Alexander made his presence felt in various ways on offense as he completed 5 of 9 passes for 106 yards with a touchdown and an interception. He also rushed three times for 31 yards and caught a 10-yard pass.
Early on, the teams were unable to reach the end zone.
Loreauville looked as if it would score first during the second period as Chris Anthony recovered a Central Catholic fumble on a bad snap around the Eagles' 36-yard line and appeared headed for the end zone. However, Central Catholic's Hugh Hamer caught up with him and jarred the ball loose. It went out of the back of the Tigers' end zone for a touchback, and the Eagles' retained possession.
Central Catholic capitalized on the break with a drive that was capped by a Miller 16-yard completion to Nathan Hebb for a touchdown.
For the game, Miller completed 12 of 16 passes for 131 yards with two touchdowns and one interception.
Hebb was his top receiver with three receptions for 52 yards and a score.
The Eagles went into halftime with a 7-0 lead, and after forcing a three-and-out on Central Catholic's first offensive possession of the third quarter, Loreauville scored quickly.
On the second play of its first drive of the second half from the Tiger 18, Alexander connected with Logan Girouard on a play the Tiger receiver turned into an 82-yard touchdown reception.
Cameron Trahan's extra point was good to tie the game at 7 with 8:44 remaining in the third quarter.
While he didn't reach the end zone Thursday, Central Catholic's Davidyione Bias led all rushers with 26 carries for 115 yards. Hamer added 10 carries for 45 yards.
In the Eagles' receiving game, Williams had four catches for 29 yards and a score.
Central Catholic will return to action Sept. 13 when it travels to Baldwin to face West St. Mary.

Say “climate-change” three times as fast as you can and see what happens. Climate-change. Climate-change. Climate change. Did it upset you? Did it ruffle your southern conservative feathers? Did you become a believer?
Seriously, if you don’t think an ever-changing climate impacts the propagation and subsequently the annual waterfowl migration, then I’d venture to say, you haven’t been a duck hunter for very long.
I made my first waterfowl hunt when I moved into the state in 1984. I was from Michigan and not used to 80-degree Christmas Days. Honestly, I’m still not but have come to know that if you just wait long enough, things tend to change.
I profusely complained to my wife that first year. It seemed a sacrilege to be wearing a T-shirt and shorts on the day you were supposed to be celebrating Jesus’ birthday.
To rub salt into the wound, when hearing my lamentations, my father-in-law would tell me stories how growing up trapping muskrats, sometimes the bayou would freeze over when down at the camp. Even my wife would tell me how as a little girl she and her brother would break icicles off the house.
Five years later, Christmas week of 1989 was one of the coldest on record with temperatures in the low teens and single digits for several consecutive days recorded around the state. Yes, that year some of the bayous and canals I frequented around Burns Point froze over with thin sheets of ice. What’s more, you’d of thought every duck in the Mississippi Flyway was located right here in St. Mary Parish, where I hunted.
Off and on, there were cold winters throughout the ’90s and some in the 2000s. There were also years with three-duck limits during the early ’90s. That’s how bad things had gotten with climate change where drought had hit the duck factory in the upper Midwest and Canada in a bad way.
The annual U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Waterfowl Breeding Population and Habitat Surveys back then were pretty bleak that left many wondering if ducks would ever rebound.
Well, since 1995, there have been 24 straight duck seasons where hunters have had six-duck “liberal” daily bag limits.
However, last season, if you would have asked most hunters how their duck season was, once you got past the cuss words, you’d have heard things like, “Worst ever!” “What ducks!” And, “The ducks never came down!”
You also might have heard the conspiracy theorists clamor how Ducks Unlimited and hunting clubs in Missouri and Illinois are planting and flooding corn up North and therefore, short stopping the ducks during the migration.
That’s not to say some upper Midwest hunters don’t hunt such conditions — there is some evidence that indicates some northern clubs do. Just like hunters in Arkansas and Louisiana hunt pit blinds along harvested rice field levees that have been flooded. What hunters have trouble with is the impact of weather on the waterfowl migration.
Last year’s Breeding Population and Habitat Survey indicated there was 41.19 million ducks counted. And though down ever so slightly from 2017, ducks were still 10 percent above the long-term average.
Last year’s November, December and January aerial surveys conducted in Louisiana were some of the lowest on record.
With duck numbers 10 percent above the long-term average, why didn’t they show up to our coastal marshes? Climate had a lot to do with it. The entire Mississippi Flyway was one of the wettest on recorded. And, when you combine wet conditions with warm temperatures, or put another way, have situations where there is plenty of open water, food resources and mild temperatures, why should ducks migrate?
Ducks are obligate species. They rely on those agricultural and wetland resources to put on fat required to migrate and reproduce.
The January 2018 aerial survey revealed 2.05 million ducks as being estimated in the state, which was 33 percent below the previous January (2017) and 31 percent below the long-term average for Louisiana.
Two weeks ago, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service released this year’s Breeding Population and Habitat Survey. The 2019 total duck numbers declined by 6 % from 2018.
With 38.9 million ducks recorded and wet conditions in the country’s prairie pot hole region, you’d think everything is wonderful up on the breeding ground. But, though the U.S. upper Midwest had above average moisture conditions in the eastern Dakotas, Canada’s climate was much drier and therefore, will impact this year’s fall flight.
Everything where ducks are concerned isn’t only an ever-changing climate. Right here in coastal Louisiana there is urbanization. There are changes in agriculture, where sugarcane is being planted further and further west towards Texas, and colder resistant strains are being studied in order to grow it further north in Louisiana.
Other things that impact Louisiana duck numbers are coastal erosion, hurricanes and hunting pressure.
The September teal season gets begins in a little over a week on the 14th of the month. Teal breeding population numbers declined by 16 % from 6.45 million to 5.43 million but still remain 6 % above their long-term average.
I’ve gotten reports of birds showing up in southwest Louisiana, Forked Island and the Atchafalaya Delta. Will they be here in large numbers? Last year, the blue-winged teal numbers from the September aerial survey were the lowest recorded on record.
I’m not convinced yet that “all” climate change is manmade, but I am convinced that climate conditions impact waterfowl migrations. I’ve lived and hunted ducks in Louisiana for 36 years. I’ve hunted ducks in short sleeves and winter gear. I’ve sweated and I’ve shivered.
One thing I know: No matter what the climate, I’ll be hunting waterfowl again this fall and winter…
EDITOR’S NOTE: Flores is The Daily Review’s Outdoor Writer.

Remember when talking about the weather was considered boring?
Now the weather is news, big news, on a regular basis.
Is that a function of climate change? You’ve got your opinion on the subject. Everyone does in this energy-dependent yet ecologically sensitive state.
It’s best not to get into those opinions in a column that appears in the news section. That belongs on the editorial page. Besides, I only have about three opinions, and two of them are about drinking beer from aluminum cans.
But it’s beyond dispute that the weather keeps making news:
—President Donald Trump is another topic that generates strong opinion. The latest to-do is over whether the president altered a weather map to show that Alabama really was at risk from Hurricane Dorian.
At some point, the president listed Alabama as among the states in Dorian’s sights. By then, the predictions said the storm would make a turn northward along or just off the Atlantic coast, far east of Alabama.
The president than made a presentation with a big map to show he wasn’t wrong after all. You’d recognize the map as a standard National Hurricane Center five-day hurricane-tracking cone, with a black semicircle added to the leading edge. The semicircle showed the storm headed for Alabama.
Reporters have speculated that the semicircle was added with a Sharpie. How they know that, who can say? But this Sharpie would point squarely at the president. The president has the same relationship with his Sharpie that Luke Skywalker has with his light sabre.
The president still insists he was right about Alabama.
Now, the president’s poll numbers are weak around the country, but they’re strong in our piece of the U.S. coast stretching from Texas to Florida. He may have stepped in something here.
He disrespected the cone.
We are cone people. Sure as sausage goes with red beans, we’ll spend a few days, or a week, or maybe more at the end of every summer looking at that familiar cone as a tropical storm or hurricane barrels its way across the Atlantic or around the Gulf.
You may not have complete faith in the National Hurricane Center predictions — remember the 30 inches we were supposed to get from Hurricane Barry? — but you will watch the cone.
No one should mess with the cone.
—Berwick’s Town Council settled on a flood control plan Wednesday at the end of a lively meeting.
You may remember that after the June 7 flash flood, 39 homes in the town’s Country Club Estates Subdivision had water in them.
Some of the residents uttered the phrase we hear more and more these days: “It never used to flood like this.”
The town’s engineer came up with a plan that involved making a ditch bigger and improving the storm drain system. It also included changes that would lower the flooding along Hogan and Palmer streets but raise levels elsewhere until all the work is completed.
That went over about the way you’d expect: Why would you want to make things worse?
The final plan is to do things in an order that will avoid the temporary risk of increased flooding. It’ll cost Berwick, where the estimated population is just below the 5,000 mark needed to become a city, about $1.6 million. The town will be looking for grants.
—The spring’s flash floods created the same sort of problems south of the railroad tracks in Patterson.
Like Berwick, Patterson will need some substantial engineering to alleviate flooding. Like Berwick, Patterson probably will get a seven-figure bill for the work. Like Berwick, Patterson will probably be looking for grant assistance.
—Lee Dragna of the St. Mary Gravity Drainage District No. 2 board recently urged the Morgan City Council to support completion of the levee improvement project.
The district has been in charge of most of the work to improve the levees surrounding Morgan City. But the portion in front of Lakeside Subdivision is up to the St. Mary Levee District, and that part has been going more slowly.
Tim Matte, the Levee District director, says the district is looking for the best, most affordable solution.
The levee improvements are designed to provide the protection needed to satisfy the people who run the National Flood Insurance Program, the chronically underfunded program that makes it possible to get a mortgage in the most flood-prone areas.
Federal support for the flood insurance program has been gradually decreasing, leaving homeowners to pick up more and more of the premiums, which can now reach the thousands of dollars per year.
Without good levees, the fear is that flood insurance costs will be unaffordable for Morgan City people.
So the weather may be unpredictable. But it’s not boring anymore.
Bill Decker is managing editor of The Daily Review.

Hilda Gray Cage, a native of Morgan City and resident of Chicago, died Friday, Aug. 30, 2019.
Visitation will be Wednesday, 4-8 p.m., at Smith & Thomas Funeral Home in Chicago, and again Thursday from 10 a.m. until services at 10:30 a.m. Burial will follow in Oakridge Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois.
She is survived by her husband, Jonas Cage of Chicago; daughters, Vanessa Norman and Angela Cage, both of Chicago and Jennifer Cage of Atlanta: a brother, Clarence Gray Jr. of Missouri City, Texas; two sisters, Barbara Watson and Janet Price, both of Morgan City; and a host of grandchildren, great-grandchildren and other relatives.
Smith & Thomas Funeral Home of Chicago is in charge of arrangements