CADE — Episcopal of Acadiana captured its second straight District 3-IV title with a 2-1 win over visiting Catholic High on Tuesday.

Co-captains Adam Sabbaghian and Ian Allam each scored for the Falcons (12-3-2, 6-1).

Thomas Morris scored the Panthers’ goal on a penalty kick with all three goals coming in the first half.

“It’s a start,” ESA head coach Adam Glover said. “It’s always been the start. We never put too much emphasis on being district champions, but it’s always a nice feeling. Our focus is always on what’s next, and that’s that big playoff run.”

The Falcons entered the game ranked third in Division IV. CHS (11-1, 6-1) was ranked first. Following the contest, Pope John Paul II moved to first with CHS and ESA in the next two spots.

“We know that we can definitely go on a great playoff run this year,” Glover said. “If we defend and play and work as hard as we did tonight, then we definitely have a great chance of getting into that state final. That’s our number one aim.”

District 3-IV has four teams in the top 11 with Ascension Episcopal (No. 10) and Vermilion Catholic (No. 11) rounding out the group.

Less than five minutes into the first half on Tuesday, Sabbaghian put the Falcons on the board. With 17:11 to go, Morris answered with a successful penalty kick before Allam added the decisive goal less than three minutes later.

“Adam’s done that all season long,” Glover said. “We’d like it if he could score a few more goals for us because he reads the game well. Once he gets the ball, he can drive forward really well. He makes opposing players commit. He definitely deserved his goal today.

“We joke all the time about Ian not using his size to his benefit. He could have easily scored five to 10 goals this season. But tonight was a crucial one and hopefully he’ll be able to pick up a couple more in the playoffs.”

Although Glover wasn’t pleased that mistakes led to Morris getting a penalty kick, he was pleased that the CHS senior was limited to one goal.

“It was just mistakes in our back line,” said Glover of the circumstances leading to the PK. “We swung a leg at the ball instead of being composed. That allowed their best player, Thomas Morris, to dribble in the box.

“We talked about him a lot before the game. Thomas is a great soccer player. He’s going to go on to college and have a great college career. We talked about the importance of keeping him contained and keeping him quiet throughout.”

Before taking over at ESA, Glover served a stint at CHS.

“I’m glad tonight was a close game,” he said. “I didn’t want to go out and win 5-0 or 6-0 because that’s my old school. I still have a lot of respect for the coach and players who are still there.

“I wanted it to be a tight game. On another day, we would have won that game 2-0. We shouldn’t have given away the penalty kick that we did. That was their only chance throughout the game. We defended well.”

During his post-game speech, Glover emphasized the importance of social distancing. In ESA’s only league loss, which came at Vermilion Catholic, Allam and Sabbaghian were sidelined because of contact tracing issues.

“We’re doing as much as we can ourselves, but boys will be boys,” he said. “They want to socialize. They’ve definitely wound it down a little on the weekends, which I appreciate, but it’s still not enough. We still need to do more.

“We need to stay healthy and use our brains. Right now, they’re not using their brains by getting physically close to everyone. Also, playing with confidence. If we play with confidence, we have a chance to go as far as we want to go this year.”