Catholic High travels to uptown New Orleans this Friday for a date with undefeated No. 2-seeded Newman in the Division III select quarterfinals. 

Newman has a tradition of turning out elite quarterbacks. Decades ago, the Greenies produced Eli and Peyton Manning. Their nephew, Arch Manning, is now at the Univ. of Texas. The current signal-caller, Eli Friend, is committed to Princeton Univ.

“They’re a really good ball club,” CHS coach Matt Desormeaux said. “Kind of what you expect from Newman. They spread it out. The QB is really good. They have a big tackle on the offensive line. The defense is very sound. They blitz a lot.”

Such a strategy could play into the hands of Panthers’ QB Luke Landry, who could star in a remake of the classic movie Cool Hand Luke. The senior has thrown for 2,167 yards and 31 TDs with only one interception. In last week’s 59-22 rout of No. 10 Northlake Christian, he passed for four scores and ran for two.

“Luke prepares the right way,” Desormeaux said. “He watches film and asks the right questions. He took advantage of a zone read and speed option (on the rushing touchdowns).”

Landry scored from 10 and 11 yards for the first two TD against Northlake Christian. Owen Morris (6 carries, 107 yards) ran for two scores and leads the Panthers with 564 yards and 10 TD on 82 carries. JD Hidalgo and Tristan Lewis have combined for 13 rushing TD.

“There is no way I wouldn’t feel good about last week,” Desormeaux said. “We executed offensively. I thought they would score some points, but our defense stepped up big and shut down their power running game. They tried to play big-on-big bully ball.”

The No. 7 Panthers (10-1) held leads of 28-0 and 42-8 over the Wolverines. Bennett Boudreaux kicked a 40-yard field goal and was perfect on extra points. Landry tossed two touchdowns to Jaiden Mitchell and one each to Joseph LeBlanc and Jake Wyman. 

Landry was 19 of 21 passing for 326 yards. Mitchell, who has a team-high 781 yards on 39 catches with 11 scores, had six receptions for 143 yards last week. LeBlanc (7-70 last week) has 39 catches for 562 yards and 11 TD. Gavin Roy (3-95) has 18 receptions for 331 yards and four scores.

Newman (9-0) has been in two close games, beating St. Charles by 14 in the opener and defeating South Plaquemines by three points in district. Last week, the Greenies handled No. 15 D’Arbonne Woods, 49-19.

“From the little I’ve seen, (Friend) can really sling the ball around,” said Desormeaux, who serves as the offensive coordinator and leaves the defensive details to coordinator Henry Ohrenberger.

“I think we matchup pretty well. Defensively, they blitz 50% of the time. They’ll disguise coverages. Luke will have to do a good job. The big thing is how we handle the pressure. We’ve been laser-focused with a really good week of practice last week.”

The CHS defense. led by Hidalgo’s 11 tackles, stopped the Wolverines behind the line of scrimmage eight times. Maxwell Chauvin (seven tackles), Jack Romero (five), Xander LaBauve (five), Michael Bertrand, Jace Ruskoski and Joseph Trappey all got in on tackles for loss.

Sophomore Karon Eugene intercepted his fifth pass of the season.