Special teams plays send Bulldogs to quarterfinals
– The Cecilia High Bulldogs overcame an injury to starting quarterback Collin Dore to rally for a 54-42 win over Lakeshore in the second round of the Division II Non-Select football playoffs on Friday, scoring 40 second-half points and holding the Titans to 14 points after intermission.
The win has the Bulldogs (7-3) practicing during the Thanksgiving break as they advanced to the quarterfinals of the state playoffs for the fourth time in the past five seasons, including a state title in 2024 and a runner-up finish in 2023.
“I’m excited for our kids,” Cecilia head coach Cody Champagne said. “They’ve worked hard and made the transition (to a new coaching staff) smoothly. We had some bumps early in the road, and to their credit they kept believing in what we were trying to preach to them, and the results are showing on the field. If we can have another great week of practice and get better, we have a chance to win another football game.”
Dore, whose availability for this week’s quarterfinal playoff at Plaquemine will be a game-time decision, suffered a sprained ankle late in the second quarter of Friday’s game at No. 4 Lakeshore.
By that point he had already rushed for 100 yards and two touchdowns for the Bulldogs, who trailed 14-7 after one quarter and 28-14 at halftime after the Titans got a pair of TD throws from Brody Loudermilk to Cohen Trosclair (19 yards) and Dylan Cusachs (64 yards) and touchdown runs from Oudrey Gros IV and Loudermilk in the opening half.
“We did (get off to a good offensive start),” Champagne said. “They did a pretty good job of kind of taking JJ (receiver Jermaine Davis Jr.) out of the game and (running back/receiver Braylon) Calais a little bit too. Dore ran the ball and had like a hundred yards rushing in the first quarter.”
Davis had 108 yards and two touchdowns on two receptions the week before and also had a 19-yard run in the win over Carroll in the playoff opener.
With Dore out in the second half, Calais shifted to quarterback for much of the third and fourth quarters with sophomore Layne Champagne also getting some time at QB.
Calais, who has played some quarterback for the past two seasons, finished the night with a team-high 190 yards and two touchdowns on the ground and 165 yards and three TDs in the air.
“We kind of scrambled a little bit to get some offense going,” the coach said. “Calais went to ‘Q’ a little bit and we put our sophomore in a few times.
“We had a plan after halftime and the offense got going with Calais at Q, so we decided to stick with Calais running Q the whole time.”
The offense also benefitted from good special teams play with two straight onside kick recoveries and a fake punt on a fourth-and-10 for a first down to keep another drive going.
The result? A 26-14 third-quarter scoring advantage including Calais touchdown passes of 24 yards to Ashton Ruffin, 4 yards and Jayden Lewis and 49 to Davis, along with a 32-yard Davis TD run.
Gros had a 74-yard scoring run and Loudermilk added a 49-yard TD run in the quarter to help the Titans (8-3) maintain a 42-40 edge going into the fourth quarter.
But Calais put the game out of reach with a 62-yard TD run and a 17yard touchdown carry in the final period.
Deondre Briscoe added 49 yards on the ground for the Bulldogs. Malik Joseph had one catch for 46 yards, Lewis had four for 28 with the TD, Davis had three catches for 65 yards and a touchdown and Ruffin had two catches for 40 yards and a touchdown.
Cecilia finished with 554 total yards including 375 on the ground. Lakeshore ran for 348 yards and had 492 total yards.
“We hadn’t gone against a Wing-T like that in a while,” Champagne said of Lakeshore’s offense under coach Brent Indest. “We had to play some things different, and we had a good game plan. It’s just they did a couple of things early on. We onside kicked twice and we had a fake punt in the second half.”
Cecilia is preparing for this week’s game with the option of having either Dore or Calais at quarterback, a position the two have shared this year with Dore getting most of the snaps. Since both are good runners, passers and receivers, the offensive scheme doesn’t change much regardless of who is taking the snaps.
“The offense doesn’t really change much whether Collin or Braylon’s at quarterback,” Champagne said. “The game plan is not going to be that much different, it just kind of messes up our personnel a little bit so we have to change our personnel grouping a little bit more than we’re used to.”
Normally Dore is at quarterback with Calais at either running back or receiver, or Calais is at quarterback with Dore at running back or receiver.
“With Calais at Q (and Dore out), that puts Dre (Deondre Briscoe) at running back, so we’ll either be in spread or have to bring in another H (back),” Champagne said. “With Briscoe you can put him at H, you can put him at receiver. What we’ve done lately is we’ve split Braylon out wide and Briscoe has been in at running back because he’s done a pretty good job running the ball. We’re able to get Calais in space and put him at receiver, which is what he naturally does.”
This week’s game is a rematch of a 2024 semifinal game between Plaquemine and Cecilia, which the Bulldogs won 56-35 during a run of four straight wins away from home during the championship run.
“It feels like it’s almost a mirror image of the team they had last year, Champagne said. “They’re big up front. They have skill positions. Their quarterback can throw the ball a little bit. One thing I know is they’re going to be ready to play because we took them out of the playoffs last year, so I know they’re going to be fired up to play us again.”
Champagne said Plaquemine game tickets are available online and he expects a good crowd of Cecilia fans to follow the team again this week.
“That’s the thing about the Cecilia community,” Champagne said. “They’re always out there, and it seems like sometimes more than the home side. It’s always cool to see the fans are there, and our kids just feed off of that.”
