Catholic High head football coach Brent Indest may have played it down a little after the game Friday, but there was definitely a sense of relief and excitement, especially among the seniors, after the Panthers blew past Calvary Baptist 49-28 in the Division III quarterfinals at CHS.

After all, some lingering demons were exorcised when the Panthers got their first win against the Cavaliers.

“It was great,” said senior running back Jadan Stokes. “My eighth-grade year we lost to them in the semifinals and we lost to them in the ‘Dome as a freshman.

“I’m glad we got this win against them.”

Senior quarterback Diallo Landry also was excited to get the win.

“It certainly does feel good to get this one,” Landry said. “The last time we saw them was in the ‘Dome in my freshman year. Definitely exorcised a few demons with this one.”

And the senior duo should be excited. After all those two were the big offensive catalysts in the Panthers 28-point victory.

Stokes rushed for 180 yards and two touchdowns, showing off some nifty moves in the process, and caught two passes for 78 yards and a score while Landry completed 6-of-8 passes for 179 yards and two touchdowns and rushed for 69 yards and a score as No. 3 seed CHS improved to 10-1 overall and advanced to Friday’s semifinal at No. 2 seed Newman, a 37-7 winner over St. Thomas Aquinas in the other quarterfinal in the bottom half of the playoff bracket.

CHS Head Coach Brent Indest said, “Most people don’t know this but my first year at Carencro we beat them pretty soundly but that was before the ybecame ‘The Calvary Baptist.’ ”

“Being over here and those two heart-breaking losses was hard. But we never made it about that, especially since it’s a different staff there now. But I can certainly tell you they don’t have the same guys that they had four years ago but they still have some guys.”

It was a classic, CHS-type of win against Calvary, jump on them early, not make mistakes and let them play catch-up.

The Panthers jumped on them early with 21 first-quarter points, all scored on Catholic High’s first nine offensive plays of the game.

Stokes had a big part of that with a 58-yard touchdown run on the fourth play of the game and a 75-yard touchdown reception from Landry on Catholic High’s ninth play of the game.

Those two plays were the bookends of a 53-yard touchdown pass from Landry to Peter LeBlanc on the Panthers’ sixth offensive play of the game.

“Coach just told me to focus on catching the ball and that’s what I did,” said Stokes, who also showed a couple of shifty cutback moves on his two first quarter touchdowns. “It was just instincts. I didn’t know I had that in me, honestly.”

That 21-point outburst in the first six minutes of the game eventually proved to be just too much for Calvary (7-5) to recover from.

“We played them hard,” said Calvary coach Rodney Guin. “We got behind early and played them even after the 21 point jump we gave them.

“They’re good and we knew we couldn’t make mistakes and we made a couple of them early and that’s how it is.”

Part of that big outburst to start the game came from LeBlanc, who blew past the Calvary safety, caught the pass from Landry and outran the defense to the endzone for the 14-0 lead.

“The safety was playing head up on me and I just cut inside,” said LeBlanc, who wouldn’t do much more on offense for CHS in the game but had an interception and a couple of pass break-ups on defense in the decision. “Diallo placed the ball in a perfect spot. He couldn’t have thrown a better ball.”

According to Indest, that touchdown pass really opened up Catholic High’s offense.

“The plan was play-action pass and after we got the play-action pass going, it slowed down the safeties. They wanted to get 10 men in the box and once we showed them they couldn’t do that. It opened things up for everyone else.”

The end result was that Catholic High amassed 615 total offensive yards and seven touchdowns on 11 posessions

“That’s crazy,” said Indest.

Calvary kept it as close as close as it could, but each time the Cavaliers scored, Catholic High responded with a score of its own.

“They punched and we counter-punched,” Indest said.

“We got it to 14 points twice,” said Guin. “But every time they pushed it back out to 21 again.”

And despite giving up a big play on every possession that Calvary scored on, the Catholic High defense kept the high-powered Cavalier offense in check.

“I have to give a shoutout to our scout offense,” said Indest. “For two weeks our scout offense ran and executed Calvary’s offense over and over and over and we gave our defense a really good look.

“Our defense really played well tonight.”

Now the Panthers return to the semifinals for the fourth time in the past five seasons and face an old, familiar foe in Newman, a team Catholic High has beaten the last two times it has faced them in the playoffs.

“One thing that’s good is that our kids are used to it,” Indest said. “These seniors have been there twice and tasted victory both times. Hopefully we can do it again.”