LAPLACE — The undefeated St. Charles Catholic Comets (4-0) thrashed the Central Baton Rouge Wildcats (2-2) Friday at Comet field.

After a dramatic back and forth first half, SCC settled in to take the win over Central 56-20.

The Comets won the pregame coin toss, but the Wildcats quickly gained control of the ball to get a first-and-10 at their 17- yard line. Central maintained control of the ball and running back Trenton Guay scored the first touchdown of the night for the Wildcats.

“I felt we didn’t respond very well coming out of the locker room,” said Frank Monica, SCC football coach. “We came out and we didn’t have the intensity we needed to play a 5A school. We have to play over our heads to compete with these guys. They jumped on top of us and got a quick score.”

SCC bounced back, and its rushing attack brought the Comets down to the Wildcats 19-yard line.

Quarterback Patrick Ratliff ran in the Comets’ first touchdown  with junior Andrew Rodrigue kicking the extra point to tie the score at 7-7.

Back and forth plays by both teams led to an eventual touchdown by Wildcat Taylor Wilson, to again put Central ahead at 14-7.

“We have to learn to come out of the locker room and play hard for 48 minutes and I don’t feel we did that,” Monica said. “We weren’t the team we were last week.”

But SCC struck back with a long scoring drive.

Erick Lewis received the ball and ran down the field until finally running out of bounds at the 11-yard line. Ratliff took the ball to the left side for a second down at the seven-yard line with tailback Tahj Smith scoring a touchdown and Rodrigue adding another extra point; bringing the game to a 14-14 tie.

SCC took over when Loupe and sophomore Trey Joseph scored consecutive touchdowns to bring the score to 28-14 at halftime.

SCC completely dominated the second half with two more touchdowns to secure victory.

Loupe scored three rushing touchdowns, alone in the third and fourth quarters.

“We needed to stop the big plays, and they hit us with a couple,” Monica said. “I didn’t know how we would recover after that, but I’m proud that we did. Central has a real good quarterback and I think they’ll win a lot of games before it’s all said and done.”

—  By Courtney Griggs