Four-Peat: Lafayette Christian Captures Fourth Straight Title; Beats St. Charles, 12-7
NATCHITOCHES – Make that four state football championships in a row for Lafayette Christian.
The Knights (9-1) accomplished what only five other teams had done in the history of LHSAA football after taking down No. 2 seed St. Charles Catholic, 12-7, in the Division III State Championship Monday evening.
Lafayette Christian now joins Edna Karr, Evangel, Ferriday, Haynesville and John Curtis as the only teams to win four consecutive state football titles since 1921.
St. Charles completed the season with a 7-3 overall record that included victories over two Class 5A opponents.
Lafayette Christian was led by Masey Lewis, voted Most Outstanding Player for the Knights, who anchored a defense that did not allow a single offensive point from St. Charles. The junior linebacker finished with 10 total tackles as well as 2.5 sacks in the game.
The Comets made history in Monday’s championship game when its Most Outstanding Player Mandel Eugene returned an 83-yard interception for a touchdown.
Eugene’s interception set the LHSAA Prep Classic Class 2A/Division III record for:
• Most Interceptions Return Yards by a team (Previous was 79 by Amite – 2018)
• Most Interception Return Yards by an individual (Previous was 70 by Kinder’s Khalil Leblanc – 2013)
• Longest Pass Interception Return (Previous was 61 by Kinder’s Khalil Leblanc – 2013)
HOW IT HAPPENED
FIRST QUARTER
• 11:48 – LAFAYETTE CHRISTIAN | On the first play of the game, Ryan Roberts connected with Caemon Scott for 80 yards to put the Knights up 7-0 early in the game.
• 09:17 – LAFAYETTE CHRISTIAN | Louie Davies’ 24-yard field goal upped the Lafayette Christian lead to a 10-0 score.
SECOND QUARTER
• 11:04 – ST. CHARLES | Mandel Eugene came up with a big play for the Comets when he picked off a LCA pass and ran it 83 yards back for the touchdown.
FOURTH QUARTER
• 00:02 – ST. CHARLES | Lafayette Christian added two points to its lead in the closing seconds of the ballgame as St. Charles QB Zack Vicknair fumbled in the end zone tryin to avoid a Masey Lewis sack.
QUOTABLES
Lafayette Christian head coach Jacarde Carter on the four-peat
“I would like to thank the guys who have helped build this program up until this point. They finished this thing out strong but the foundation was laid four years ago. They didn’t have anything to believe and had not won a title or even a district title but they believed in the process and kept working.”
Lafayette Christian head coach Jacarde Carter on defensive performance
“I felt like we came in battle-tested. We had to step up big time and our guys made some big plays. There were some players that don’t usually get in the game a lot that played their part.”
Lafayette Christian Masey Williams on how it felt to win a championship
“When we won all I could do was stand there in shock. I had to keep from crying. It was an awesome feeling. I thought we came in prepared and we just executed.”
St. Charles head coach Frank Monica
“Field position hurt us in the first half and we couldn’t get out from underneath our own goal post. We couldn’t get any running game going against their defensive front and just were unable to get past them. Give them credit though. They are a really good team. Hats off to our guys that played their hearts out. It was just unfortunate that we could not get an explosive play.”