ST. JAMES- The St. James Wildcats outlasted Catholic New Iberia last night, chalking up a 35-28 class 3A bi-district win over Catholic New Iberis’s Panthers at St. James to advance to the second round of the playoffs.

The Wildcats’ Jason Zenon put St. James on the board early with a 91 yard kickoff return to open the scoring. Jerome Lewis hit the PAT to put the Wildcats up 7-0.

Catholic would even it up with 69-yard run by Travis Zachary, before Zenon hit the end zone again to put the score at 13-7 at the end of first quarter action.

The second quarter was action filled, with each team getting on the board twice.

Catholic’s Zachary started it off with 25 yard dash to put the Panthers up 13-14. That run was answered with an Antonio Phillips 33 yard touchdown pass to Chase Green that regained the lead for St. James.

Catholic came right back with a pass by quarterback Joshua Boudreaux, who found Cody Raymond for a 30-yard score.

Phillips got his second touchdown pass of the night on a nine-yard throw that found Tramaine Deprement in the end zone to give St. James a 27-21 halftime lead.

The scoring action slowed down in the second half as each team’s defense seemed to find a way to end drives.

But with Catholic trailing 27-21, the Panthers’ Boudreaux-Raymond connection came into play again, this time on a scoring pass of 20 yards.

St. James finally managed to nail the door shut in the fourth quarter with Deprement getting his second touchdown of the night on a 4-yard run.

St. James moves into the second round of the playoffs with a matchup against Franklinton next Friday night in Franklinton.