By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

LAPLACE — Through St. Charles Catholic’s 3-1 start, the Comets offense and defense are carrying their own weight.

SCC has scored 31 points or more in each of its four contests this season, while the defense has allowed 14 points in each of the Comets’ three victories.  

It’s a trend St. Charles coach Frank Monica hopes will continue Friday night at Ville Platte, where the Comets will encounter their final pre-district opponent. 

Ville Platte won its opener over Class 2A Westminster, 38-9, but since then has dropped three consecutive games at the hands of Basile, Huntington and Oakdale. 

While the Bulldogs have struggled offensively since that opening win, scoring just 12 total points in that span, defensively, Ville Platte has remained stout, allowing an average of 16.8 points per game against. 

“They have 10 seniors on defense and all are returning starters from last year,” Monica said. “It’s a formidable unit. Their head coach coaches the defense, and they take pride in stopping you.”

Last season, St. Charles (3-1) defeated Ville Platte 49-0. SCC quarterback Austin Weber starred in that one, accounting for four total touchdowns in the victory.

Weber was coming off of a one-game absence due to injury then, but this season he enters the Ville Platte (1-3) game hot after accounting for six touchdowns in SCC’s win over Miller McCoy last week.

“He made a huge difference through his scrambling,” Monica said. “He made some exceptional runs and he threw extremely well too. He’s known more as a runner than a thrower, but he can throw, and he proved that again. We kept looking for that home run play and finally we got it in the second half.”

That “home run” against McCoy was a 65-yard touchdown pass by Weber to Dane Authement, who finished the game with five receptions for 105 yards, a season high for the wide receiver.

“He’s a quick kid with really nice hands,” Monica said. “He runs sharp routes and he understands our offense. He’s got his best football in front of him.

“He, Brady Becker and Albert Hane give us a nice trio of threats. Geoffrey Wagner has really been coming along behind them, as well as Jacob Jensen and Reggie Ross. We like that group.”

Becker, meanwhile, has taken to a new set of responsibilities along with his work at receiver: last week marked the first time SCC has utilized him in the defensive secondary, Becker moving to safety in nickel packages. He responded with two interceptions.

“He’s a very instinctive player,” Monica said. “We’d talked about using him in the nickel package before and we decided to make the move Friday. He played at the top of the hill for us and broke on a couple of balls. He showed he had the instincts we thought he had. And aside from that, he stops touchdowns with his tackling ability.”