OCS, OHS Advance
BOBBY ARDOIN
St. Landry Now.com Editor
It’s at least 150 miles to the next postseason destination for Opelousas High, while Opelousas Catholic jumps onto the team bus for a 10-minute playoff excursion to meet a topseeded district and geographical rival.
That’s the nature of late November high school football and both OCS and OHS are continuing their seasons on the road, following impressive first-round wins on Friday night.
Opelousas High won a bi-district playoff game under first-year head coach Harry Coleman, as the Tigers defeated Pearl River 13-0 Friday night.
Meanwhile OCS rebounded from two losses over the last three regular season games by opening the playoffs with a dominant 35-7 victory over Ascension in Division IV select.
The No.16 Vikings move forward into the playoffs this Friday night to meet undefeated Westminster Christian Academy, which beat OCS 24-22 in a regular season district game in the first contest played at the newly-renovated Donald Gardner Stadium.
Opelousas, seeded 19th in Division II non-select, travels to the New Orleans area to play No. 3 Belle Chasse.
Opelousas 13, Pearl River 0
Coleman said the Tigers defeated No. 14 Pearl River by controlling the line of scrimmage.
“It was amazing that we were able to pitch that shutout (of Pearl River). I thought our guys on the defensive line were the reason we kept (Pearl River) from scoring. I thought it was the same situation with our o-line guys,” Coleman said.
Coleman gave credit to his assistants for designing an effective game plan.
“We were able to come up with a few defenses that we hadn’t shown during the regular season and sort of mix things up,” said Coleman.
The Tigers (4-7) scored all their points in the first half on a 1-yard run by quarterback Collin Rideau and a 45-yard breakaway by Jaylon Owens.
Opelousas has won four of the last five games.
OCS 35, Ascension Christian 7
Opelousas Catholic is reconstituting a starting lineup after playing the last third of the season without several key starters.
Most of those previously-injured players are back, said OCS head coach Cullen Matherne.
Braxton Harris and Evan Duplechain are the newest elements in a running game that has been without senior Royce Butler, who Mathene said has a season-ending ACL injury.
Harris and Duplechain each gained 50 yards against the No. 17 Lions.
Receiver Roderick Tezeno has also returned to the lineup. Tezeno caught four passes for 74 yards and a touchdown against Ascension Christian.
Vikings’ quarterback Kross Gillen passed for 174 yards on two touchdowns against the Lions. Receivers Maurice Marcel (2 catches 25 yards), Luke Minyard (1-35-1) and Lane Dugas (3-36) were the key targets for Gillen.
OCS used the running game to control the game offensively, Matherne said.
“Ascension Christian came out wanting to take away our passing game. They were putting five guys on three receivers, so we ran the ball more than we would normally do,” said Matherne.
