BATON ROUGE — The St. Charles Catholic Comets (9-2) are traveling to the state capital Friday to take on the undefeated Madison Prep Academy Chargers (11-0) in round two of Division III playoffs.

Comets head football coach Frank Monica said playing undefeated teams always brings a set of challenges.

“The biggest challenge for playing Madison Prep is their athleticism,” Monica said.

“Their players are very, very big and very, very athletic. They have a number of Division I players all over the field.

“A big concern of ours is preventing the big plays and finding a way to make a first down.”

Monica said there isn’t just one or two things the Chargers do well.

“Madison Prep is really strong on defense,” Monica said. “They run their ball. They are a very, very good football team.

“They don’t have any apparent weaknesses in any of the phases, but the strength of their team is their defense.”

St. Charles Catholic will be down a player this week. Senior running back and frequent scorer Justin Loupe is out for the rest of the season. He broke is leg on the third play of the Comets’ game against Opelousas Catholic last week.

Monica said senior Tahj Smith will be stepping into Loupe’s place.

“He’s done it before,” Monica said of Smith stepping into Loupe’s place. “He’s up for the challenge. He’s a good back and he plays a lot. He knows how to score.

“(Loupe) did a lot more than just play running back and Smith will be able to fill all of those roles.”

Monica added the trek to Baton Rouge wouldn’t present any challenges for the Comets.

“We are used to traveling,” Monica said. “We have been on the road a lot this year. We started the season off on the road and have traveled seven times so far, so this is not unique to us.

We just have to handle everything that goes with a strange environment.”

By Courtney Griggs