By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

BOUTTE — St. Charles coach Frank Monica preached caution after St. Charles’ scrimmage performance at Hahnville Thursday night, noting the results of the competition counted for nothing but building confidence and an evaluation of his players against a strong opponent.

But it will likely be hard for Comet fans to hide their optimism this week after their team’s performance, one that saw its first team offense score six touchdown and its defense hold the Tigers’ number one unit to just one.

Tulane commitment Lazedrick Thompson rushed for 134 yards and three touchdowns to lead SCC, including a 70-yard breakaway run. Backfield rushing-mate Marcus Hall carried six times for 31 yards and a touchdown.

Hahnville’s first team established its lone score on Easton Melancon’s pass to running back Mike Ford.

Tigers’ coach Lou Valdin said that his team has a long way to go as it replaces 18 departed senior starters from a year ago. But he said that the roster turnover didn’t diminish the performance of the visitors.

“We looked like a team that’s replacing 18 starters,” said Valdin. “The biggest difference today is they caught the ball when it got there. We didn’t. We need our guys to make those plays.

“I don’t know if it’s that we’re that bad or if St. Charles is just that good. They’re impressive, top to bottom. They executed extremely well and they just flat outplayed us.”

Monica said that he was pleased most of all with his team’s intensity, something he said his players dialed up a few notches from what he’s seen.

“The energy level surprised me,” he said. “I hadn’t seen that from them in practice. I thought the weather helped a bit, being overcast without the intense heat.

“I thought we executed well but we won’t know to what extent until we watch the tape. But what the tape won’t show is our emotion and our intensity against a quality opponent like Hahnville. We’ve got a long way to go, but I was pleased with that aspect.”

The start of the scrimmage set the tone as the Comets forced a quick turnover and went on to score the practice’s first 21 points.

Melancon’s pass attempt on the game’s first third-down play went to the flat, but it was thrown backwards and mishandled. The Comets covered it at the Hahnville 19.

On second down, quarterback Donnie Savoie hit Sammy Miller, who hauled in the pass despite good coverage, at the 3. Thompson ran it in from there to make it 7-0.

On the next Hahnville possession, the intensity Monica spoke of was on display as end LaJaylin Smith made the hit of the day on running back Ernest Thompson close to the line, a loud shot that fired up the defense. SCC took over in their own territory after a stop and drove for their second score, a deep out to Miller near midfield the precursor to a Marcus Hall breakaway scoring run that made it 14-0.

St. Charles scored its third touchdown after Savoie hit Brandon Zimmer up the seam for a nice gain, then found Chris Millet for a short scoring pass to push the lead to 21-0.

The Tigers’ second team would draw Hahnville within a touchdown with back-to-back scores, one coming defensively. But two more touchdown runs by Thompson and another by Zimmer pushed the Comets to what would end up as an insurmountable lead.

Monica said that he wants to see ball security cleaned up, as he was not happy with his team’s three giveaways. But he was happy with how his team moved the ball against a Tigers team with one of the strongest secondaries in the state.

“Their secondary was excellent, we didn’t have many open receivers,” he said. “I thought Donnie did a fine job of distributing the ball and placing it where it needed to be.”