Much like last week, Hahnville was faced with a state finalist from Division II select – this time, state champion St. Charles Catholic. And just like last week, Hahnville made a furious rally in the second half.
But for the second week in a row, the Tigers came up just short against tough opposition, as St. Charles Catholic survived Hahnville’s comeback, earning a 28-27 victory in overtime.
After SCC (2-0) scored to go up 28-21 in overtime on a Landree LeBlanc quarterback draw, Hahnville’s Fabian Celestine scored to pull Hahnville within one.
HHS (0-2) elected to go for two and win the game right there. Quarterback Landen Teague rolled out and threw to Early James in the endzone – James drew a pass interference call which put the ball at the 1.
The Tigers attempted to punch it in with Celestine, but the Comets’ Jireh Hall made the play of the night, shooting in on a blitz off the edge and tripping up the Hahnville senior in the backfield.
“It was very similar to last week. Nothing much firing on offense (early). A lot of new guys – Landen and Fabian back but a lot of new faces,” said Boyne. “We’re struggling to get in a rhythm on offense. Defense is kind of holding it together, but we still missed way too many tackles.
“Credit to our kids for fighting back. As a staff, we’ve got to be better, especially in our gameplan early. And they’re a good team.”
It was the second overtime win in two weeks for head coach Wayne Stein’s Comets, who defeated Legacy (Texas) last week 34-28.
Kaiden Bran led Hahnville receivers with three catches for a career high 104 yards. Celestine rushed for 92 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries. Landen Teague completed 13 of 18 passes for 203 yards and two touchdowns, while rushing for 31 more.
But the star of the night wore blue and gold. Comets running back Evan Duffour. Duffour scored three first half touchdowns, including one from 60 yards that gave SCC its biggest lead of the night, 21-0, midway through the second quarter. One of those touchdowns was set up by a long punt return deep into HHS territory.
“We had some lapses in the kicking game. They hang their hat on special teams at St. Charles, and they broke a return on us,” said Boyne.
Hahnville dug in defensively after that, though and would not allow another SCC score until overtime.
The Tigers scored just before halftime on a Celestine run to make it 21-7. SCC had a chance to make it 24-7 before the break as it drove deep into HHS territory, but missed a field goal.
Early in the third quarter, Teague lofted a pass over the heads of two Comet defenders to find James for a 25-yard touchdown, making it 21-14.
That’s where the score would remain until late in the fourth quarter. Badly needing a defensive stop for one more opportunity to tie, the Tigers got just that when Beaux Woods disrupted LeBlanc on a third down pass, leading to a Comets punt with just over two minutes left.
Teague found Bran down the middle for a pickup of 50 yards. Then, with 27 seconds left, he found Cola open in the endzone for a 20-yard, game-tying score.
Boyne wasn’t interested in a moral victory on Friday, but said given the competition over the first two weeks in Shaw and St. Charles, he feels this team is further along than it was last season at this time when the Tigers were 2-0.
“We’re a better 0-2 than we were 2-0 last year. Obviously, we’d love to be 2-0 or at worst 1-1. We want to win … but inside this building, I think they realize who they’ve gone against. I think we’ll just keep getting better and better,” Boyne said.
