Panthers pick up first win of the season over Eunice

Published 4:00 pm Saturday, October 1, 2022

Through the first four weeks of the season, the big question for Catholic High has been, “Where is the offense?”

Through four games, the Panthers were shut out by Vermilion Catholic, held to seven points by Parkview Baptist, scored 20 against Erath and were shut out last week against Leesville for a grand total of 27 points scored this season.

Friday night against Eunice, the dormant CHS offense came to life, scoring 34 of the teams’ 44 points in a 44-18 non-district win over the Bobcats for the Panthers first win of the season and easily the most points CHS has scored all season.

“I’ve said from the beginning that we’ve struggled getting to the edge,” CHS coach Scott Wattigny said. “Anytime we’ve had a stretch play or a play to get outside the tackle, we couldn’t do it.”

“The first play we ran tonight, we go down the sideline for 35, 40 yards and that was the boost of confidence we needed and because of that, the inside run game was able to get going.”

Because of that, Wattigny added, the play-action pass was open and with all of the offense available, the Panthers moved the ball and more importantly, put it in the endzone and put points on the board at a rate that the visiting Bobcats couldn’t stop.

CHS rolled up 358 yards of offense, averaging just under seven yards per play.

Luke Landry completed 10-of-15 passes for 137 yards and two touchdowns and Javon Brown had 95 yards and a touchdown rushing as the Panthers ran for 221 yards, improving to 1-4 on the season as Catholic High heads into district play next week at home against Ascension Episcopal.

“We’ve always had the capability to do this,” Wattigny said. “But when you think about it, in my tenure here, about 2 1/2 years, we’ve never scored more than 20 points against quality teams.”

“When we put 20 on the board against Erath, it was like, now we can do this.”

And the Panthers did do it on offense.

In addition to his passing, Landry added 38 yards rushing including a nifty sprint down the sidelines for 30 yards on a fourth down play that effectively sealed the win for the Panthers.

Chris Green also had 38 yards rushing and Jack Chauvin caught five passes for 58 yards for CHS.

The defense also got into it for Catholic High as Jaden Mitchell had an interception return for a touchdown for the Panthers’ final score of the game.

“I had to keep reminding myself that this was going to come,” Wattigny said. “We were a young team. I mean, this was only Luke Landry’s fifth start ever, the offensive line had been only playing together for five games. We knew we could do this, it was just going to take some time.”

“This was a must-win game and now that we did, we have some confidence heading into district.”