Catholic High receiver Peter LeBlanc (29) heads upfield against Newman Friday in New Orleans.

NEW ORLEANS — It’s a funny strategy that teams have employed all year against Catholic High — load up the box to stop the run and dare CHS to beat teams through the air.

“I think that all year long we’ve shown that we can throw the ball pretty well,” CHS head football coach Brent Indest said after No. 2 seed Newman tried the same strategy against CHS in the Division III semifinals at Michael Lupin Stadium on Isidore Newman School’s campus. “It was weird the way they played it. They put 10 guys on the line of scrimmage and dared us to throw.”

Challenge accepted — and answer delivered.

Senior quarterback Diallo Landry completed 10 of 14 passes for 378 yards and three touchdowns. All three TDs were longer than 49 yards, and the CHS defense came as close as one can to pitching a shutout and the Panthers advanced to their second Division III Championship game in four years with a convincing 49-7 rout of Newman Friday.

No. 3 seed Catholic High will play top-seeded Notre Dame, a 41-31 come-from-behind winner over No. 2 seed Riverside Academy, December 7 at 7 p.m. in the Mercedes-Benz Superdome for the title.

“All we did was take advantage of what they did,” Indest said of Friday’s game. “But I really do think the bottom line was defense. We basically shut those guys out. We were in prevent mode at the end of the game (when they scored). To do what we did defensively was incredible.”

And to do what the Panthers did offensively was just as incredible.

CHS amassed 549 total yards and seven touchdowns, including four in the second quarter that effectively put the game out of reach as Catholic High went into the break with a 35-0 lead over the previously unbeaten Greenies (11-1). It was the third time in the past four seasons that Catholic High has beaten Newman including the second time they’ve won in the semifinals (2014).

While Newman did finish with 333 yards of offense, 82 of those game on the Greenies’ only touchdown drive of the game, a 13-play series that ended with a 42-yard touchdown pass.

Newman quarterback Martin Butcher, who passed Greenie legend, an future NFL Hall-of-Famer Peyton Manning on the Newman passing list during the game, was held to 20-of-42 passing for 193 yards and was picked off twice.

Outside of that, Big Red’s defense forced Newman to punt on six possessions, stopped a fake punt on one other possession and forced a failed fourth-down conversion on the other possession.

“We did a really good job on stopping their run,” said CHS senior Warner Simon, who had one of Catholic High’s two picks in the game. “They have a really good quarterback and we were able to shut down their passing game.

“We practiced a lot for them. We did extra 7-on-7 this week in order to get ready for their passing game. We practiced against that play and all I had to do was sit and wait for that interception.”

Another senior, Broc Romero, had the other interception as he went high in the end zone and took away the ball from a Newman receiver to stop one potential Greenie touchdown.

As for the Panther offense, it started with Landry as he unleashed the “Air Panther” offense.

“We saw that their corners were aggressive on film and we had to take shots but they were defending to stop the run all night,” said the CHS senior signal-caller. “The plan was to take shots and execute on our base plays.”

While the base plays worked as well, it was those shots against the Newman secondary that really paid off. 

Landry had touchdown passes of 96 yards to Trey Henry, 52 yards to JaDan Stokes and 49 yards to Peter LeBlanc. He finished with an average of just over 37 yards per completion.

“All it takes is for me to get into rhythm,” Landry said. 

“But the offensive line blocked their tails off and they executed on every play and that’s what allowed me to open up with the ball.”

Indest was pleased with his senior quarterback.

“I can’t say enough about him. He did what we wanted him to do,” the CHS coach said. “They weren’t covering our backs and that’s the people we needed to throw to.

“They were looking at Peter (LeBlanc) but they weren’t looking at anyone else.”

LeBlanc finished with four catches for 127 yards, Ben Landry had four catches for 103 yards. Stokes and Henry each had four catches.

Newman coach Nelson Stewart was philosophical after the game.

“It is so hard to replicate the wing-T in one week,” Stewart said. “You have to give them credit tonight. They were able to throw off of play action and throw downfield. That was something that we hadn’t seen.

“You have to commit to stopping that run. I think the deceptive part is we didn’t really see how fast their wide receivers were. They can really stretch you vertically. We probably could have run some more zone defense but we could only prepare for what we’ve seen. They showed us some stuff we hadn’t seen.”

Now Indest and the Panthers get ready for a rematch with Notre Dame, which beat Catholic High 37-0 back on Sept. 22. 

That will come later, Friday night was a time to enjoy seeing a group of seniors make it back to the ‘Dome.

“Right now I’m not going to think about Notre Dame, I’m just going to enjoy this,” said Indest. “We’re not one of those juggernaut schools. We’d like to be, but we’re not there yet.

“To see these seniors go back to the Superdome for the second time in four years, that’s something very, very special.”