Plagued by penalties, the Westgate Tigers couldn’t get anything going consistently on offense until only a couple of minutes remained in Friday’s District 7-5A opener against Terrebonne.

By that time the visiting Tigers had built a big lead and held on for a 31-8 win over Westgate, keeping WHS winless on the season. Terrebonne improved to 2-2 overall and 1-0 in district while Westgate fell to 0-4 and 0-1.

In other Teche Area games Friday, St. Martinville had its way with Beau Chene, claiming a 61-6 win against a former district rival; Kaplan held off West St. Mary 21-20 to keep the Wolfpack winless; New Iberia opened district play with a 35-7 win at Thibodaux; Loreauville traveled to the far end of the state for a 59-28 win over Madison; Catholic High shut out Church Point on the road, 44-0; Highland Baptist claimed a 28-22 win at Ridgewood; Erath slammed Berwick 42-9; and Abbeville beat Franklin 44-22.

Terrebonne 31, Westgate 8

Westgate was penalized 12 times for 99 yards, with those penalties often stopping drives or negating positive plays, and Terrebonne took advantage of short fields twice in the first half to jump out to a 21-2 halftime lead.

THS drove 85 yards on its opening drive to take a 7-0 lead on a leaping catch by Cody Marcel on a third-and-25 pass by Colby Stewart from the Westgate 26.

After Westgate pulled to within 7-2 by tackling Deshaun Diggs for a three-yard loss that resulted in a safety with just over a minute to go in the first period, Terrebonne answered with two quick TDs in the second quarter thanks to a short punt and a fumble by Westgate.

A 30-yard scoring drive, capped by Justin Theriot’s one-yard run, was the result of a 10-yard punt by WHS. Two plays later, Westgate fumbled the ball away at its 24 and it took only five plays for Terrebonne to reach the end zone again on Stewart’s four-yard keeper.

The visiting Tigers led 21-2 at the half after rushing for nearly a hundred yards. Westgate had more yards in penalties (64) than on offense (57) in the half.

A fumble ended Westgate’s first possession of the second half after the Tigers had moved to the THS 26, and WHS couldn’t put together a scoring drive until the fourth quarter, by which time Terrebonne had added a 43-yard field goal and a five-yard scoring pass on a fourth-and-three play with just under three minutes to go.

Malcolm Peter’s 40-yard kickoff return, and a 15-yard penalty against Terrebonne, set up a two-play scoring drive for Westgate. Trevonte Williams carried both times from the wildcat formation, covering 20 and 23 yards, to make it a 31-8 game. The try for 2 failed, and though Westgate recovered the ensuing onside kick, its drive stalled after a sack.

Westgate plays crosstown rival New Iberia on Thursday.

St. Martinville 61, Beau Chene 6

ST. MARTINVILLE — Brylin Porter completed seven of 11 passes for 231 yards and five touchdowns as St. Martinville scored 28 first quarter points en route to a big non-district win over Beau Chene Friday.

Porter had touchdown passes of 38 and 41 yards to Kendall Wiltz; 25 and 68 yards to Lorenzo Chaisson and 15 yards to Jamiah Nelson as the Tigers (3-1) amassed 489 yards of offense.

The SMSH defense held BCHS (0-4) to two first downs total and 43 total yards of offense, the majority of which came late in the second half.

The Tigers have a short week of work as they travel to Opelousas High Thursday.

Kaplan 21, West St. Mary 20

BALDWIN — Kaplan’s Pirates scored all the points they needed in the second quarter, then played keepaway with their running game Friday night to keep West St. Mary High School winless in 2012.

The Pirates scored three touchdowns after spotting the Wolfpack a short-lived first quarter lead of 6-0 and hung on to win 21-20 when WSM quarterback Trevell Dixon’s long last-gasp spiral fell harmlessly to the turf as the clock ran to 0:00. 

The Wolfpack had stopped Kaplan, finally, at the WSM 2 with less than a minute to play and staged a gutsy rally that carried them to midfield with pass completions of 11, 27 and 3 yards to their own 47. They were victimized by two 5-yard penalties, their 13th and 14th of the nondistrict game, in that final drive on the way to their fourth loss in as many games.

Dixon completed 14 of 23 passes for 171 yards and two touchdowns, one for 75 yards to Devron Charatain in the first quarter and the other for 48 yard to senior Adonis Sterling in the second quarter to cut the visitor’s lead to 21-14. 6-foot-2, 195-pound senior with 4.4 speed also ran for a 5-yard touchdown in the third quarter that cut the deficit to 21-20 but was stopped onthe 2-point conversion.

Mostly, though, Kaplan kept the ball out of his and the Wolfpack’s hands with a ball control offense on the ground. The Pirates rolled up 252 yards rushing and added 107 in the air.

The winners, 2-2 overall, were led by Chanse Caillouet, who rushed for two touchdowns and 98 yards on 13 carries. Teammates Tyson Broussard, who scored the go-ahead touchdown in the second quarter, and Kaplan Rudd added 50 and 52 yards, respectively.

New Iberia 35, Thibodaux 7

THIBODAUX — Jason Jones completed 15 of 18 passes for 190 yards but it was New Iberia’s defense that coach Rick Hutson credited for the Yellow Jackets’ District 7-5A opening win Friday.

With the score tied at 7, New Iberia fumbled the ball away at its own 34. But the NISH defense stopped Thibodaux short on a fourth-and-inches play, and the Jackets drove 76 yards in seven plays to take the lead for good on a two-yard run by Daniel Lewis, who also scored New Iberia’s first TD. Jones added TD runs of two and eight yards and a five-yard scoring pass to Josh Richie.

Tenth-ranked New Iberia improved to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in district. Thibodaux fell to 1-2 and 0-1.

NISH plays host to Westgate in the Bayou Berry Bowl on Thursday.