Catholic High’s scheduled Week 2 football game at Central Catholic in Morgan City was canceled due to Hurricane Francine, but the Panthers fortunately found an opponent in Comeaux.

CHS evened its record at 1-1 by smashing the Class 4A Spartans 56-6 in Lafayette. Starting quarterback Luke Landry carved up the Comeaux defense with short and intermediate passes, completing 16 of 22 attempts for 260 yards and three TDs with no interceptions.

His longest pass was a 34-yard strike to Jaiden Mitchell for a 14-0 second quarter lead. Xander LaBauve completed 2 of 3 passes for 39 yards and threw a TD to Andrew Trappey.

“I was a little concerned about Comeaux’s defense because they looked good up front,” CHS coach Matt Desormeaux said. “We struggled on the ground early.”

Maxwell Chauvin, who also had four stops on defense with 2.5 tackles for loss, returned a punt for a TD to open the scoring. JD Hidalgo, who had a team-high 10 tackles with a sack, two tackles for loss, a forced fumble and a pass break-up at linebacker, ran for two TDs. His short run and Landry’s TD pass to Khylon Edwards gave CHS a 28-0 lead in the first half.

“JD is a competitor,” Desormeaux said. “A hard worker and a great kid. If you tell him to run through a brick wall, he will try. He just wants to please. That is a great attribute for a kid like him to have.”

Landry’s work was done after a 23-yard touchdown pass to Gavin Roy made it 49-6 midway through the third quarter. Nine receivers had at least one catch: Mitchell (3-79), Joseph LeBlanc (4-41), Tristan Lewis (3-45), Roy (2-41), Edwards (2-21), Trappey (1-37), Layton Mitchell (1-23), Grayson Varnado (1-10) and Tylan Sonn (1-2).

“I was very pleased with how we played on the offensive side of the ball,” Desormeaux said. “Luke did a great job distributing the ball and taking what the defense gave him. He had a couple of drops. We had a couple of players (Owen Morris and Jake Wyman) out with injuries, and young guys stepped up.”

CHS outgained Comeaux 368 yards to 90 and won the first down battle (20 to 8) with two of the Spartans’ first downs coming via penalty. Comeaux, which was limited to 1.8 yards per carry, was 6 of 20 passing for 60 yards with two interceptions by Izaac Andre and Karon Eugene.

The CHS defense recorded an impressive 12 tackles for loss. Jack Romero (five tackles, sack), LaBauve (three tackles), Andre (three), Michael Haik, LeBlanc and Lewis each got in on a stop behind the line of scrimmage. Linebacker Bennett Woodring broke up two passes, and Joseph Trappey recovered a fumble.

Kicker Bennett Boudreaux was 7 for 7 on extra points. Isaiah Parich made the final PAT.

Lewis led the rushing attack with 54 yards on eight carries, followed by Hidalgo (4-12).

The Panthers, who were ranked 10th this week in the LSWA’s Class 2A poll, travel to Patterson on Friday. The Class 3A Lumberjacks were Comeaux’s originally scheduled Week 2 opponent. The Lumberjacks lost to Jeanerette, 40-0, in a Week 1 game played on a Saturday at New Iberia Senior High.

“If we don’t play well, it could be a dogfight,” Desormeaux said.