EDGARD — St. Charles’ players gleefully chanted “Gooseegg! Gooseegg! Gooseegg!” in their post game huddle Friday night.

A week ago, the Comets emerged with a 45-32 victory over Vandebilt Catholic, but the Terriers’ 25-point second half spurred St. Charles coach Frank Monica to lament his defense’s ability to tackle on the night.

But on a night that the Comet offense struggled early, its defense more than answered the call, nailing down a shutout in a 28-0 win over West St. John.

“After last week, we had things to work on,” said St. Charles defensive end LaJaylin Smith. “We had to prove all over again that we could do it. Our mindset tonight was to go all out and we did what we had to do.”

St. Charles (3-0) drove 57 yards in seven plays to cash in its first points of the night, the key play coming when Donnie Savoie hit Harley Scioneaux for a 26-yard gain and West St. John was called for a personal foul — the ball was placed on the Rams’ 10.

Two plays later, Marcus Hall rolled in for a 6-yard touchdown, making it 7-0.

But the Comets missed chances to put the game away in the first half. A spectacular 50-yard, return-like run by Hall was called back for holding. Another potential Hall scoring run, this one from 26 yards, was negated when the Rams forced a fumble before he crossed the goalline. The Comets lost a redzone scoring chance when Denzell Pierre intercepted Donnie Savoie in the endzone on first-and-10 from the Rams’ 13. And the Comets suffered from a number of uncharacteristic penalties.

But West St. John’s young offense had issues of their own against an unforgiving Comet defense. West St. John turned the ball over twice in the first half, including a fumble and an interception of quarterback Mark Wright by Aaron Hampton — the Rams rotated two quarterbacks in the game in Wright and Austin Howard.

“Our defense played extremely well,” said St. Charles coach Frank Monica. “Early, we bent but we didn’t break and we made adjustments. Offensively … we need work. We didn’t take care of the football. We made bad decisions. My team was a bit sluggish.”

The Comets quickly slammed the door in the third quarter. Lined up as quarterback in the “Wildcat,” Hall led the team on a half-opening drive culminating in a 33-yard touchdown run. The extra point attempt was no good and at 9:31 in the third.

The Comets recovered a fumble on the Rams’ next drive, taking over at the WSJ 38. Hall would soon score for the third time on a 16-yard scoring run, also in the Wildcat. The two-point attempt was no good.

West St. John (1-2) went three-and-out on its next drive, and a penalty pinned them back at their goalline. The ensuing punt attempt failed—the snap was dropped and SCC converged, settling for a safety after the pile was cleared with 2:50 left in the quarter.

After the safety punt, St. Charles embarked on its final scoring drive, at one point converting a second-and-28, and scoring when Savoie rolled from the pocket and found John Wood in the endzone for a 6-yard touchdown.

“Once our kids realized that West St. John was playing hard, and that they were for real, they picked up the intensity,” said Monica. “To their credit, we had a number of starters down and some young guys had to step in. I’m proud of how we responded.”

Each team traded interceptions from there (SCC’s Dalton Hale and WSJ’s Jarius Moll each halted drives with pickoffs) but no more points were put on the board.