Two months ago, when Catholic High played St. Thomas Aquinas in the third week of the regular season, the Panthers scored 21 first quarter points on the way to a 63-7 win over the Falcons.

Friday night, when the two teams met again in the first round of the LHSAA Division III playoffs, Catholic High again scored 21 points in the first quarter, but didn’t need to add another 42 the rest of the way as No. 6 seed CHS used a strong running game and an ever stronger defensive effort to roll past No. 11 seed STA 48-0. The Panthers advance to the second round and a date with No. 3 seed Dunham Friday.

Trey Henry rushed for 142 yards and four touchdowns and the CHS defense kept the visiting Falcons out of the end zone and set up three offensive scores for the season sweep of STA by a combined 111-7 score.

“We started out sluggish and put the ball on the ground a couple of times and that just aggravates the hell out of me,” CHS coach Bent Indest said. “They came up and loaded the line of scrimmage and it took us a few plays to figure out what they were doing.

“They gave us the weakside edge and we started running Trey (Amos) and a little quarterback sweep to the weakside to answer them and they just started giving us everything else. It was a matter of finding out what they were giving us and we took advantage after that.”

While Henry had the most productive offensive night for CHS, it was the defense that started the ball rolling.

On STA’s first play from scrimmage, quarterback Ryan Dawsey fumbled the snap from center and it was pounced on by Nicholas Borne, giving the Panthers the ball at the Falcon 18-yard line.

Three plays later, Amos sneaked in from the 3-yard line and the Panthers led 7-0 after Nick Boutte’s PAT.

It only got worse from there for STA.

“I just did what my coaches told me to do all practice and I executed well like they drilled into us all week,” said Borne, who also ended up with a pass break up that stopped another STA drive. “The fumble recovery was a big play for us. They were trying to stretch the play and go wide and the ball came out and I jumped on it.

“Everyone does their part the best they can and I just do my job the best I can.”

The CHS defense definitely did its part Friday night.

In addition to Borne’s fumble recovery, the Catholic High defense also had an interception from Amos (another pickoff that was returned 105 yards for a touchdown was called back for an illegal block), forced three punts, forced one turnover on downs and benefited from a missed STA field goal on another drive.

“These guys are a spread team that has moved the ball on their opponents all year long,” Indest said. “But they came out in a wing-T to open the game against us. You kind of scratch your head on that one. We didn’t see it all week and we adjusted to it well. I mean they tried to run our offense against us.”

St. Thomas Aquinas did move the ball on Catholic High, the Falcons finished with 240 yards of offense, but three possessions that got into the red zone came away empty, while CHS just marched up and down the field against STA to the tune of eight possessions and eight touchdowns.

“We preach all the time that defending spread teams once they get inside the 15, 20 yard line that the field shortens for them and we need to use that for our advantage,” Indest said. 

As for Henry, the junior running back who’s been dealing with injuries all year had a monster game in the win.

He scored on a pair of one-yard runs as well as a three-yard run and a seven-yard run.

“It felt the same way it felt after last week’s game,” he said. “Like I said last week, without the line, I wouldn’t be able to put up points.

“I’m glad that I’m healthy and coming back at this time. My team really needed me and I’m glad that I’m able to do what I can for the team.”

Now Catholic High looks towards undefeated Dunham and nationally recruited athlete Derek Stingley, a 5-star prospect according to multiple recruiting services.

“We’ve seen some early film on them and they have as good or better skill people than anybody that I’ve ever coached against, going back to Carencro, Abbeville, Crowley or anywhere.

“The only time I’ve seen better skill kids is when I was at Louisiana Tech. We’re going to have our hands full with those guys.”