St. Martinville area’s highest seed

Published 11:00 pm Sunday, November 4, 2018

As expected, several Teche Area teams qualified for postseason play when the Louisiana High School Athletic Association released the football playoff brackets for all Classes and Divisions Sunday.

While the expected opponents changed in some instances, the seven Teche Area teams that qualified all ended up where they were expected to be in the bracket.

St. Martinville Senior High, fresh off of a perfect 10-0 regular season, the school’s first since 1996, finished as the top seed of all the area teams in the playoffs as the Tigers are the No. 3 seed in Class 4A.

SMSH will play host to No. 30 seed Franklinton (4-6) in the first round with the winner facing the winner of the 14/19 seed game between Belle Chasse (8-2) and G.W. Carver High (7-3) in the second round.

“We are excited about finally getting a home playoff game,” St. Martinville head coach Vince DeRouen said. “Excited for the community, the school and the kids are looking forward it. They can’t wait.”

Defending Division III state champion Catholic High (9-1) finished as the sixth seed this year and will play host to No. 11 seed St. Thomas Aquinas (5-5) in the first round with the winner facing No. 3 seed Dunham (9-0) which received a first-round bye.

Catholic High beat STA 63-7 on Sept. 14.

“Going into week 10 we felt that we had a 75 percent chance that we would end up as a sixth seed,” said CHS coach Brent Indest. “There was a chance that we could have been a fifth but I’d rather go in as the sixth seed than the fifth.”

Indest was pleased with the Panther’s draw in the playoffs.

“We wanted to avoid being on the same side of the bracket as Notre Dame because of how dominant they are,” said the CHS coach, although he was not overly pleased with the fact that he woould be facing an opponent he already faced this year. “It is what it is and it’s a way of life now that we have the split championships. It’s not something that I’m happy with but there is always the chance that it’s going to happen.”

In Class 4A, Westgate (6-4) finished as the 25th seed and head to No. 8 seed Plaquemine (8-2) for the first round with the winner facing the winner of the 9/24 seed game between Bastrop and McDonogh 35 in the second round.

Two of Catholic High’s Distirct 7-2A rivals also made the playoffs this year as Franklin (4-5) finished as the 23rd seed and heads to No. 10 seed Red River (6-3) in the first round while West St. Mary (3-6) finished as the No. 28 seed and heads to No. 5 seed and defending Class 2A state champion Welsh (7-3) in the first round.

The Franklin/Red River (located in Coushatta) winner will face the 7/23 seed winner of Kinder (6-4) and Bunkie (4-6) in the second round while the WSM/Welsh winner will face the 12/21 seed winner between Mansfield and South Plaquemine in the second round.

In Class 3A, Erath (4-6) finished as the 27th seed and will travel to Lake Charles to face No. 6 seed Lake Charles College Prep (9-1) for the first round with the winner facing the winner of the 11/22 seed contest between Northwest and Berwick.

In Class A, Centerville (5-5) finished as the 20th seed and will travel to face No. 13 seed and District 7-A rival Gueydan (6-3) in the first round with the winner facing No. 4 seed Logansport (9-0), which received a first-round bye.

Finally, in Division IV, Hanson (3-7) finished as the 15th seed and will travel to Donaldsonville to face No. 2 seed and 2017 Division IV state runnerup Ascension Catholic (9-1) with the winner advancing to the second round to face the winner of the 7/10 contest between St. Edmund of Eunice (9-1) and Catholic High of Pointe Coupee (7-2).