Cavs and Cougars ably gain division playoff berths

Two local Catholic high school football teams have survived the rigors of the playoffs to earn berths in their respective division championship games. And to the surprise of few prep followers, they are De La Salle and St. Charles Catholic. 

More surprising is that the Division I championship game, which will take place at Northwestern State University’s Turpin Stadium in Natchitoches, is that  neither of the two schools playing for the title will be from the Catholic League.  Both No. 1 seed Brother Martin and No. 4 John Curtis were eliminated in the semifinal round by Catholic-Baton Rouge and Byrd of Shreveport.

De La Salle and St. Charles Catholic met during the season with the Cavaliers winning over the Comets, 21-0. They showed their ability and resilience through the post-season and now have earned berths in the playoff games set for Dec. 28 - St. Charles Catholic will play Lafayette Christian at 3 p.m.,  followed by De La Salle vs. St. Thomas More at 7 p.m. 

The finalists for the LHSAA’s select Division II trophy are neither strangers to winning football games nor to each other. Just one year ago St. Thomas More ran roughshod over De La Salle in the championship game by the outrageous score of 58-10.

At that time, the victorious Cougars were the No. 1 seed and De La Salle the No. 2. For this year’s championship game, the roles are reversed. Although both are undefeated, the Cavaliers drew the No. 1 seed. And unlike 2019 when St. Thomas More enjoyed the convenience of hosting the division’s title game, the two adversaries, both undefeated in nine games, will face each other on a neutral field in Natchitoches.

The Cougars and Cavaliers have collided twice in the post-season. They met in 2017 at Tulane University’s Yulman Stadium. The Cavaliers, the top seed that year, won that semifinal round game, 28-14, then went on to lose to University Lab in the finals, 45-19.

While St. Thomas More has two Division II championship trophies housed on campus (won in 2016 and 2019), De La Salle has yet to win a state championship through 70 years of fielding a football team. Coach Ryan Manale’s squad lost in the final round in 2017 and last year.

Before Manale took over the program in 2012, De La Salle had languished through several lean years.  Once part of the New Orleans Catholic League, the Cavaliers last played for the Class 3A title in 1961. They did not reach that summit again until 2017 when they were humbled by University Lab, 45-19.

On the other sideline, Coach Jim Hightower’s Cougars have won twice, were runners-up in 2015 and 2018 and played in 10 semifinal round games under his tutelage. Hightower is the state’s second most successful coach with more than 400 victories. Since his first season in 1986, Hightower’s teams have won 21 district titles and made 33 consecutive playoff appearances.

Hall of Fame head coach Frank Monica has taken his St. Charles Catholic Comets to the state football playoffs at the end of each of the last 20 seasons, either as a Division II or III competitor.

Over the span of his 51-year career, Monica has guided his teams at Lutcher, Jesuit, Riverside Academy and St. Charles to nearly 280 victories, which led to his induction in the Louisiana High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2019. But one thing the “living legend” has yet to do is to lead his team to a victory over Lafayette Christian.

The two Division III select schools met in the 2019 championship game at University Louisiana-Lafayette’s Cajun Field. The result was a convincing 41-14 victory by Lafayette Christian, an up-and-coming football program whose playoff history is a rather briefly seven years old.  

But in that short span, participating as a Division IV team, the Knights have dominated. After being eliminated in the first round of the 2016 playoffs, the relatively new school burst onto the scene in a big way by winning three consecutive division titles. The first two came against Ascension Catholic by the scores of 10-0 in 2017 and 56-7 in 2017. Then, moving up to Division II in 2019, they made St. Charles their latest casualty.

This year, the No. 2 Comets are the higher seed as the two prepare to meet again. The game will mark another milestone for the school from Laplace in St. John Parish. During Monica’s tenure, the Comets have posted a 47-32 playoff record. They won their only state championship in 2011, a 9-8 thriller over Amite. Although never earning a No. 1 seed, St. Charles has been its division’s runner-up four times (2005, 2006, 2017 and 2019) and  has advanced to the semifinal six times.

The Knights earned the No. 5 seed after losing to the reigning Class 5A champion Acadiana, 21-0. But they proved their mettle with wins over six-time state champion Notre Dame in district play, and No. 1 Newman in the semifinal playoff round.

rbrocato@clarionherald.org