Bulldogs win Civil War game, reclaim Stump Trophy
– The Cecilia High Bulldogs didn’t put up huge offensive numbers in the annual Civil War game against Breaux Bridge on Friday.
The Bulldogs’ 42-0 shutout win came despite Cecilia running only 12 offensive plays in the first half and compiling only 236 total yards for the game.
But CHS scored on every possession of the first half except a one-play possession at the end of the second quarter. Two touchdown returns from the special teams in punt block formation accounted for the remaining points.
Neither team scored in the second half with a running clock and the Bulldogs sending their second team offense into the game after intermission.
“The thing is, we had to come out and get better,” Cecilia head coach Cody Champagne said. “I think we had maybe one holding penalty and that was a big thing from last week when we had a lot of penalties that hurt us.”
The Bulldogs (4-2 overall, 1-0 in District 5-4A) reclaimed the Cypress Stump Trophy awarded to the St. Martin Parish champion as well after limiting BBHS to 66 total yards on Friday. St. Martinville had beaten both parish rivals in 2025 to win the Stump Trophy.
BBHS coach Tyler Pierce said his team missed a lot of assignments and made mistakes in formations and tackling.
“I just have to do a better job of figuring out how to settle things down,” he said. “And it might be that I just have to settle down a little bit more.”
Cecilia junior QB Layne Champagne returned from injury for the Bulldogs and promptly completed all six of his pass attempts, throwing for 131 yards and three touchdowns before sitting out the second half.
The Bulldogs threw on their first four offensive plays, on five of their first eight plays and on six of their first 10 plays.
“That was the game plan a little bit,” he said. “The doctors said they didn’t want me going full time the whole game, so Coach Cody said that I wouldn’t run the ball at all and just stick to handing off and passing.
“I just want to keep building on tonight and keep getting better and better each game to go for the long run.”
Champagne had missed the previous two games after getting hurt against Barbe on Sept. 18 .
“At first I was just a little bit nervous to come on the field,” Champagne said. “I just wasn’t sure what the first hit was going to feel like. But I’m good now.”
“Layne’s going to do what he needs to do to win,” Cody Champagne said. “Obviously the running part (for Layne Champagne) was out of the game plan because he was coming back from injury. They wanted to protect him and let him heal some more. He did a great job of running the offense. We had some explosive plays early, so that helped out too.”
The Dawgs opened the scoring with a 30-yard TD throw from Champagne to Franky Frank with 9:38 remaining in the opening quarter. Aiden Landry kicked the point-after for a 7-0 lead.
After a second Breaux Bridge punt, the Bulldogs drove 53 yards on seven plays with Champagne throwing to Braylon Calais for 12 yards and the TD to end the drive at the 5:48 mark.
The Bulldogs then used special teams to score two more first-quarter touchdowns for a 28-0 lead.
“I think that first quarter was definitely the worst half of football we’ve played this year, against definitely the best football team (we’ve faced),” Breaux Bridge’s coach said.
Derrick Ross scored both special teams touchdowns for the Bulldogs as the Cecilia punt block team struck twice.
“It felt amazing,” Ross said. “It felt so electric. This was one of the best games I’ve played this season, and I’m very proud of my performance and our overall team performance.”
Ross scored on a fiveyard fumble return after the special teams unit forced a fumble from the punter, then on a 25-yard return of a blocked punt for a 28-0 lead after the first period.
“The first one, I just got to the ball very fast,” Ross said. “The second one, my guy BJ (Broderick) ‘Potato’ Patt blocked it and I picked it up and scored.”
“We’ve been doing a good job with special teams, and we knew that they were going to come after it,” Pierce said. “Schematically there’s nothing that we would change with it. We just have to execute better.”
Ross noted that his junior season didn’t finish the way he wanted it to because of family issues, but the coaches showed their trust in him this year.
“I just want to say I’m very proud of myself, and I’m very proud of my team and my coaches and the people who supported me,” Ross said.
“If you want to look up adversity, you can look up Derrick Ross,” Cody Champagne said. “He’s been through a lot, and he just pushed through it. He’s becoming a great player for us.”
The Tigers (0-6, 0-1) were able to get their next punt off but that merely set up another quick scoring possession for the Bulldogs. Champagne and Frank hooked up for their second TD pass of the night, with the one-play drive covering 35 yards to give Cecilia a 35-0 lead at the 4:55 mark.
Frank had two catches for 65 yards and two touchdowns. Ashton Ruffin added two receptions for 29 yards with Deondre Briscoe (one for 25 yards) and Braylon Calais (one for 12, TD) also catching passes.
Another Breaux Bridge punt resulted in another quick Cecilia scoring drive, this one taking two plays. Briscoe had the scoring honors with a 40-yard TD run that pushed the lead to 42-0 and started the running clock with about eight minutes to go in the half.
Briscoe led Cecilia with 52 yards and a touchdown on four carries. Ja’torrian Matthews added seven carries for 34 yards and Chase Narcisse had 11 runs for 25 yards.
The Tigers finished with 49 yards on the ground, hurt by the fumble on the punt and by another big loss on a pitchout that went out of bounds.
Cruz Trail led BBHS with 19 yards on five runs and quarterback Dakowen “Pop” Celestine added 18 yards on four totes. Celestine completed one of five pass attempts for 17 yards with Nelson Borel on the receiving end.
Cecilia celebrates homecoming against Beau Chene (6-0, 1-0) this week.
The Bulldogs’ coach said the team will focus on the game and look to avoid any homecoming distractions.
“It’s a normal week of practice for us,” Cody Champagne said. “We’ve got to lock in and we’ve got to get better. The bottom line is, it doesn’t matter who we play, we’ve got to get better.”
“We just have to block out all the outside noise,” Layne Champagne said.
“We’ve just got to stay focused and stay locked in and just execute how we need to,” Ross said.
Breaux Bridge travels to Carencro (2-4, 1-0) for a District 5-4A game on Friday. The Bears’ losses have come to 4-2 Lafayette Christian, Class 5A Acadiana (4-2), and a pair of unbeaten teams in West Feliciana and Westgate.
Pierce said the Tigers must just put last week’s game behind them.
“I think sometimes you have some games that just don’t go your way,” Pierce said. “Carencro is Carencro. They have a really good quarterback. They have some great skill players. One of the big things for them is they can go split back veer on you and the very next play be in a different formation. They can put you in the spread, and that quarterback puts a lot of pressure on you because he can do everything.”
Pierce is familiar with the Golden Bears program, having spent two years as an assistant there on the staff that featured current head coach Gavin Peters as offensive coordinator.
“Coaching with that group and especially Gavin Peters, I have a lot of respect for him and just that program overall,” Pierce said. “It’ll be another tough test for us.”
