’Dawgs score on opening kickoff, cruise in first round of playoffs
– Visiting Carroll High matched Cecilia’s return of the opening kickoff for a touchdown with a fourplay, 55-yard scoring drive of its own to tie up the score of their first-round Division II Non-Select playoff game Friday at Cecilia High School just two minutes into the game.
Cecilia shut the visitors from Monroe down the rest of the night, however, and scored 49 points over the next 2 1/2 quarters to pull out a 56-7 win in a battle of Bulldogs.
“We knew they had a lot of guys playing both ways, and we had to go fast, and that’s what we did,” Cecilia head coach Cody Champagne said after claiming his first playoff coaching win. “They’ve got some big boys out there, and our job was to slow them down, and that’s what we did.”
The Cecilia offense, meanwhile, got into high gear quickly after Carroll’s only TD of the night, scoring on a twoplay drive to take a 13-7 lead into the second quarter, then adding three more TDs before halftime.
Two quick touchdowns in the third quarter sent the game to a running clock with Cecilia leading by 42 points (49-7) at the 8:06 mark of the third period, and a final touchdown with under four minutes left in the quarter provided the 49-point margin of victory.
The school also honored a pair of high school All-Americans at halftime, retiring the jersey number of legendary defensive standout Ramsey Dardar, who went on to an All-SEC career at LSU, and presenting an Under Armour All-America jersey to junior Braylon Calais, who was chosen for the January game.
Calais, a receiver, running back, quarterback and defensive back for the Bulldogs, led Cecilia with 129 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries on Friday.
“I would definitely say we did a lot of film study,” Calais said. “We broke them down piece by piece. I feel we executed and picked apart each of their weaknesses and came out strong.”
Cecilia (6-4) advances to a regional playoff game at Lakeshore (92), the fourth seed in the DII playoffs, on Friday.
The first-round game was dominated by Cecilia. Calais returned the opening kickoff 97 yards for a touchdown, though Carroll answered with a quick drive featuring passes of 29 and 28 yards from Terrance Ward to big receiver Jason Friels, the latter going to the end zone for the tying score.
But the homestanding Bulldogs got a 74yard scoring pass from Collin Dore to receiver Jermaine Davis Jr. to go ahead only two plays later.
Davis finished with 108 yards and two touchdowns on two receptions. Dore completed nine of 11 pass attempts for 166 yards and the two TDs.
Cecilia limited Carroll to 200 total yards, 55 of which came in that first drive.
“Going into the week we knew we had to put our best foot forward every practice, every play, and just play team ball,” senior linebacker Braylon Jones said. “I was just seeing the gaps in the hole, and trusting the D-Line to slant and keep the gaps open.”
A fumble, the Bulldogs’ lone turnover of the game, ended the next drive but Cecilia scored on a one-yard run by Calais, a 13-yard run by receiver Malik Joseph and a nine-yard Calais carry to lead 35-7 going into the half.
A 44-yard TD connection from Dore to Davis started the second- half scoring and Deondre Briscoe added touchdown runs of two and seven yards to the tally to push the final to 56-7.
Briscoe finished with 19 yards on four carries. Dore added 33 yards on six runs and had a 2-point conversion on a fake kick. Briscoe also caught two passes for 11 yards and Jayden Lewis had three for 34 yards.
“You’ve got some explosive guys out there and you’re just trying to get them the ball and let them do their thing,” Champagne said of the offensive success. “It’s easy when you can make a call and those guys can make a catch behind the line and score. It makes playcalling pretty easy.”
The Bulldogs had two weeks to prepare for the playoff game as they had an open date for the final regular-season game, and Champagne said the positive work the team put in those two weeks showed in the game.
“We’ve just got to keep getting better,” he said of preparing for No. 4 seed Lakeshore. “That’s the main thing. Starting Sunday we get out here at 5. We’ve got to get better at practice. Now it’s going to shrink. All the little things are going to show up. The mistakes have got to shrink and we’ve got to execute at a high level now.”
Cecilia has played five playoff games each of the past two years. To match that they’ll have to continue improving, the coach said.
“These guys have played a lot of football the past four years,” he said. “They know what it takes in the playoffs. We’ve just got to keep getting better. If we don’t keep getting better we’re not going to go anywhere. If we keep getting better, we have a shot.”
Jones added that the Bulldogs carried over two good weeks of drills and practices with good energy on Friday.
“That’s the model for the rest of the year — energy,” Jones said. “Go Bulldogs.”
