Acadiana Christian School and John Paul The Great are the two power programs in the Association of Christian Educators of Louisiana football league.

ACS only lost two games in 2023: both to JPG, which is located in Lafayette, and has never defeated the Guardians.

Friday at NISH, the Lions and Guardians met in the season opener, and while the result didn’t change, ACS has made strides.

The Lions led in the first half and tied the game in the third quarter of a 44-22 loss. ACS scored a total of 12 points in the two games vs. JPG last year.

“For three quarters, it was a great football game,” ACS coach Carroll Olivier said. “It showed we got bigger, faster, stronger and better. It came down to discipline. A couple of missed assignments hurt us.”

Near the end of the first quarter, quarterback Brandon Judice threw a 59-yard touchdown pass to sophomore receiver Brent Henry, and tailback Malakai Coon ran in the two-point conversion for a 16-14 lead.

“Judice did a great job,” Olivier said of the senior, who completed 4 of 8 passes for 106 yards and no interceptions. “He played a phenomenal game. We’re cracking the code. We’ve never scored more than two touchdowns on them.”

ACS took the opening kickoff of the second half and drove 53 yards in seven plays to even the score at 22-22. On 4th-and-11, Judice completed a 28-yard pass to Layne Hebert to move the ball to the JPG 26. One play later, Landon Decuir scored on a 25-yard QB keeper.

“We played solid. We played physical,” Olivier said. “We have a couple of questions but not as many as before. I think when we go back and look at the tape, we’ll see that a missed assignment hurt us on running plays.”

JPG, which runs the veer offense, had two halfbacks each rush for over 100 yards. The Guardians led 30-22 heading into the fourth quarter. Junior Jackson Olivier led the ACS defense with 10 tackles. Coon and Henry had six tackles each, and Decuir added five.

Jonah Peltier, who led the Lions in rushing with 39 yards on three carries, scored his team’s first TD, gathering in a perfectly timed option pitch and sprinting up the right sideline to tie the game at 8-8 after Coon’s two-pointer.

Hebert caught two passes for 53 yards. Henry had two receptions for 56 yards. The Lions, who rushed for 85 yards on 15 carries, gained the bulk of their yardage on big plays.

ACS travels north of Lake Pontchartrain to face the Covington-based Northshore Vultures on Aug. 15. The Vultures (1-0) blasted First Baptist Christian of Lafayette 42-16.

“I don’t overlook anybody,” said Olivier, whose team routed Northshore 44-0 and 42-14 last year. “They have a lot of speed, a quick quarterback and a nice running back. They’re a top four team in the league.”