After what Central Catholic Coach Tommy Minton felt was a lackluster first-half by his squad in which it entered halftime trailing 29-22, the Central Catholic Eagles responded with a much stronger second half en route to a 46-29 victory against Gueydan on the road in both teams’ District 7-1A opener Friday.
“Most of our mistakes in the first half dealt with our focus and our effort,” Minton said. “I didn’t feel like we played real hard in the first half. I felt like we showed up after our third long bus ride in four weeks, and we didn’t get off the bus ready to play football.”
That changed in the second half when Central Catholic outscored Gueydan 24-0 and held the Bears to just one first down.
In all, Central Catholic outgained Gueydan 541-156 in total offense.
The Eagles had 388 yards rushing and 153 yards passing.
Chris Singleton rushed 22 times for 228 yards and five scores, while Davidyione Bias had 16 carries for 160 yards and two touchdowns.
The Eagles have turned in several solid rushing performances in recent weeks behind an offensive line that came into this season with a mixture of veterans and some less-experienced players.
“We’re getting better at it (running the football), and they’re a big, physical bunch up front and we want them to use that,” Minton said. “We got a quarterback and a running back who both run the ball very, very hard, and we’ve been able to get that established the last three weeks, and we just need to keep that up. … Doing that opens up the passing game, and we’re getting better at it. There’s still a long way to go in the passing game, but we are making progress.
Friday night, Central Catholic quarterback Taylor Blanchard completed 5 of 10 passes for 153 yards with one touchdown.
DeDe Gant led Central Catholic’s receivers with four receptions for 124 yards, while Cade Minton had one reception for 29 yards.
Gueydan had 39 yards passing and 117 yards rushing.
Central Catholic had 23 first downs, while Gueydan had seven.
Central Catholic (2-2 overall, 1-0 in district) will continue league play Thursday when it hosts Lafayette Christian (4-0, 1-0) in a 7 p.m. contest.
Gueydan will return to action Friday when it hosts Hanson Memorial in district play.