By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

In at least one respect, St. Charles entered Friday night’s game with Plaquemine without much to lose — after all, the Comets were guaranteed at least a piece of the District 9-3A title no matter what the game’s result was.

Only, the Comets weren’t interested in sharing anything.

St. Charles put an exclamation point on an outright district championship with a 49-7 victory over the Green Devils Friday night at Plaquemine.

Stafford Jones rushed for 114 yards and a touchdown, and Courtland Taylor ran for 91 yards and three touchdowns for SCC (8-1, 4-0). Henri Faucheux completed 6-of-9 passes for 109 yards and two touchdowns. Nick Reine led all defenders with nine tackles, one for loss.

“As competitive as our district is, we’re pleased to come out on top,” said St. Charles Coach Frank Monica. “It’s a real credit to the kids and the staff, and the work they put in.

“At the same time, you have to look at the big picture. We go on now with a tough playoff schedule in front of us. Everyone rolls back to 0-0.”

Monica said that the win was in great part due to the Comets balance. Not only did the Comets pass and run with great success, but the defense put on one of its more impressive showings of the season. Plaquemine (0-8, 0-4) entered the game averaging 25 points per game. St. Charles held the Green Devils scoreless until the fourth quarter, and held dynamic quarterback Ryan Travis to 145 total yards between passing and rushing.

“We knew we needed to control the tempo,” said Monica. “(Travis) is a great player, and he’s surrounded by big, talented lineman. We just wanted to contain him.”

St. Charles led 14-0 after a quarter, and 35-0 at halftime.

“We wanted to get ahead, and not encourage (Plaquemine),” said Monica. “We didn’t want them gaining confidence early. By the same token, we had to establish confidence for ourselves.”

To aid that, Monica said that he and his staff sought to control time of possession and keep Travis and the Plaquemine offense on the sideline.

“We told the offense that we need to have more at-bats than they do,” he said.

SCC scored on its first three possessions of the game. With 7:02 left in the first quarter, Taylor put his team on the board first. His 3-yard touchdown run capped a seven play, 77-yard drive. Faucheux’s 34-yard pass to Michael Brock set the Comets up at the Plaquemine 10, and two plays later Taylor was in.

Plaquemine turned it over on downs at its own 35 on the Devils next possession. St. Charles took advantage, going ahead 14-0 after an 11-yard Faucheux scoring pass to Tyler Roussel with 2:27 left in the first.

St. Charles forced a punt, then scored again with 8:35 left in the first half. After seven straight runs, Faucheux found Zach Goodwin for a 30-yard touchdown and the Comets led 21-0.

Then the Comets defense got in on the fun. St. Charles’ Aaron Hampton recovered a Devils fumble at the PHS 1, and Taylor converted on SCC’s first play to make it 28-0 with 2:09 left in the first half. Justin Vicknair capped the second quarter scoring when he intercepted Travis and converted it into a 41-yard touchdown return with 1:31 remaining.

SCC added touchdowns in the third quarter (a 7-yard Taylor run set up by a 57-yard Alex Marse kickoff return) and the fourth quarter (on a 66-yard Jones run).

“We didn’t want to back into the playoffs,” Monica said. “For a few weeks, we weren’t up to par. I think we did a nice job, and surprised them initially.”

St. Charles finishes the regular season ranked No. 7 in the final Class 3A poll.