By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

LAPLACE — On a Halloween night of trick or treating, there wasn’t anything too tricky about St. Charles Catholic’s attack against visiting Lusher Friday night — the Comets wanted to run, and run is what they did.

Austin Weber, Erron Lewis and Justin Loupe combined for five rushing scores as SCC rolled over Lusher, 45-7, on the Comets’ Senior Night.

“We wanted to push our offensive line to be a little more physical in this game,” St. Charles coach Frank Monica said. “I thought Lusher outplayed us in the first half. After halftime, I credit my players. We had a little talk at halftime and they stepped it up and responded.”

Loupe led the rushing charge, gaining 163 yards on the ground.

St. Charles (7-2, 3-1) wrapped up District 11-3A play with the victory, finishing as runner-up to John Curtis. The Comets face Grace King in non-district action next week.

The Comets got on the board early with the aid of an explosive play. Weber connected with Brady Becker for a 47-yard gain, and combined with a Lusher personal foul, it set SCC up at the Lusher 8. Weber scored on a keeper on the next play to make it 7-0 with 4:29 left in the first quarter.

SCC forced a punt attempt, but a quick rush forced an aborted kicking attempt and an errant throw on fourth down, allowing the Comets to take over on the Lions’ 27. Two plays later, Lewis was in for a 3-yard score to push the lead to 14-0.

Lusher (4-4, 0-2) punted after a drive that produced one first down, but this time the Comets couldn’t capitalize, a fumble giving the ball back to Lusher at the 41 of SCC. The Lions got into the redzone after a Louis Landrum III pass to Diego Griffin, but the SCC defense held.

“We wanted to put some inside pressure on him, to make him move his feet a little more,” Monica said. “(Landrum) was able to make some plays, but I thought we did a decent job of that.”

SCC took over at its own 10 and marched 90 yards for its third score. A Weber pass to Becker netted 27 yards, then Dane Authement hauled in a 22-yard catch. Weber found tight end Zach Maurin for 12 yards down to the 4 before taking it in himself for the rushing touchdown. St. Charles led 21-0 at halftime.

Lusher found the endzone early in the second half, cashing in on a St. Charles fumble on SCC’s second play from scrimmage. Jean Batiste scooped and scored for what became Lusher’s lone touchdown of the night on a 68-yard return.

SCC answered back, and overcame a slew of flags to do it. Two apparent Comet touchdowns were called back, but a third was not: Lewis scored on a 1-yard plunge, set up by a 14-yard Weber run, to make it 28-7.

The Comets’ next score came on a 4-yard Loupe run, capping an 80-yard drive.

A 35-yard Andrew Rodrigue field goal made it 38-7. Then, the defense put an exclamation point on the night when Eric Lewis intercepted Landrum and returned it to the house for a score.

On a night celebrating his seniors, Monica was effusive in his praise of the 2015 class.

“They’re not the most physically talented group, but they’ve got great character,” Monica said. “They’re good boys and great teammates. They’ve got great chemistry in our locker room. To me, that’s priceless. Sometimes you have a group, and they’re not all good guys or good citizens. These kids are truly good.”