Higher seeds Catholic High and St. Martinville won their playoff openers Friday night and lower seeds Westgate and Franklin pulled upsets to join them in the second round in their respective playoff brackets.

St. Martinville, the No. 3 seed in the Class 4A playoffs, beat No. 30 Franklinton 55-42. Catholic High, seeded sixth in Division III, shut out St. Thomas Aquinas 48-0. Westgate, the No. 25 seed in 4A, beat No. 8 Plaquemine 56-35 on the road. Franklin, seeded 23rd in Class 2A, upended No. 10 seed Red River 16-13.

In other games involving Teche Area teams, Erath lost to Lake Charles College Prep 28-14 in a Class 3A game; West St. Mary lost to defending 2A champion Welsh 49-0; Centerville lost to District 7-A rival Gueydan 40-28 in a Class A game; and Hanson lost to Ascension Catholic 52-8 in a Division IV playoff.

Catholic High 48, St. Thomas Aquinas 0

Trey Henry rushed for 142 yards and four touchdowns and the Catholic High defense set up three scores as the Panthers advanced to the quarterfinals of the Division III playoffs with a shutout win over St. Thomas Aquinas Friday in a game played at New Iberia Senior High.

Henry scored on four runs of seven yards or less. Quarterback Trey Amos scored on a one yard run, Zoe Cormier added a nine yard touchdown run and Evan Nguyen scored on a 10 yard run as No. 6 seed CHS improved to 10-1 on the season and heads to Baton Rouge next week to face No. 3 seed Dunham, which had a first-round bye.

Catholic High’s defense also came up big against the Falcons. Nicholas Borne recovered a fumble that led to a touchdown, the CHS defense forced a turnover on downs that led to a score and Amos intercepted a pass that led to another score in the rout.

CHS held STA to 240 yards of total offense and held the Falcons out of the end zone the three times St. Thomas Aquinas got inside the CHS 20 yard line.

Quarterback Ryan Dawsey led the Falcons with 160 yards passing.

St. Martinville 55, Franklinton 42

ST. MARTINVILLE — No. 3 St. Martinville picked up its first playoff victory since 2012, and first home playoff win since 2006, with a victory over visiting No. 30 Franklinton on Friday night in the opening round of the Class 4A playoffs.

Travien Benjamin rushed for 224 yards on 15 carries and scored three touchdowns (33, 10, 35, 35) less than three quarters, while Markavon Williams added three more rushing touchdowns (9, 4 and 8).

SMHS pulled its starters midway through the third quarter but put them back in the fourth after Franklinton mounted a comeback scoring 42 points and recovering four onside kicks in the second half.

SMHS’s defense forced four turnovers as freshman Mandrell Butler hauled in an interception and Todrick Toussiant recovered a fumble — both in the first half. Butler got his second interception of the night midway through fourth quarter, off a tipped pass, and returned 25 yards for the touchdown. Toussiant ended the game intercepting the final desperation pass from Franklinton. 

SMHS will face Belle Chasse at home this coming week.