BALDWIN — All season long, Catholic High’s defense has made play after play as the Panthers have mowed down opponent after opponent.

Friday night, with the district title and a high playoff seed on the line, the Panthers defense again rose to the occasion with two touchdowns and two more turnovers that led directly to scores as CHS beat West St. Mary 35-20 to clinch the District 6-2A championship.

It’s Catholic High’s first district title since 2006.

Elliot Broussard and Joe Dworaczyk each had interception returns for touchdowns and the CHS defense had a total of five interceptions and one fumble recovery in handing the Wolfpack their second district loss of the season.

“We wanted to play physical and we wanted to take footballs,” said CHS defensive coordinator John Louviere. “That was our goal tonight, to get to every football we could.”

Holding West St. Mary’s explosive offense in check for all but about a 10-minute stretch in the third quarter, Catholic High’s defense kept giving the offense the ball with chances to score.

“I thought we did a great job,” said CHS coach Keith Menard, whose team finished the regular season with a 9-1 record, a perfect 4-0 district mark, and a nine-game winning streak. “Our kids stepped it up when we needed to. It was a great defensive effort all night. 

“Pick one, pick anybody. Our whole defense as a unit played so well. We took away their two really good football players and that’s what we needed to do.”

Broussard and Tyler “T.O.” Olivier showed probably the best example of what the CHS defense did all night.

Olivier locked up on WSM’s Dai Juan Stewart, who came into the game as the leading receiver in the state, and held him to one catch for 10 yards.

“I wanted to be physical with him,” said Olivier. “He’s a very good receiver. I had to play my game and be aggressive. We had a great game plan for him and I followed it to the letter.”

Broussard’s 70-yard interception return in the third quarter gave the Panthers a commanding 28-6 lead, which proved to be too much for the Wolfpack to overcome.

“It was a tipped ball and I caught it and returned it for a good bit,” said Broussard. “I was thinking touchdown and I knew I had to put it in. We knew after that we still had to play tough, stingy defense. We had a couple of mess-ups but we played well.”

Catholic High’s ball-hawking ways led to five interceptions and one fumble recovery as well as stopping the Wolfpack on fourth down twice in the second half when WSM threatened with a fourth-quarter rally.

“We played our game and we played defense like we’re supposed to at Catholic High,” said Broussard.

Joe Lissard completed 19 of 35 passes for 269 yards and two touchdowns for Catholic High, which struggled on offense early.

The Panthers missed three opportunities to score inside the WSM 5-yard line in the first quarter and finally got some offensive scores in the second half in building a 28-6 third quarter lead.

West St. Mary (6-4, 2-2) cut the lead to 28-20 early in the fourth quarter as Jontrey Tillman (140 yards rushing) and Tre’vell Dixon (130 yards) each had a touchdown run.

But Catholic High sealed the win with Dworaczyk’s 30-yard interception return in the fourth quarter.

“It came down to inexperience,” said WSM coach Ryan Antoine. “Catholic High has been here before and knows how to win. Our guys didn’t make the plays that we needed to make. Our guys were down big and we came back and made a game of it. I’m real proud of them.”

Both teams are expected to receive high seeds in Class 2A. Playoff seedings and pairings are announced today and both teams are expected to host a first round playoff game this week.