RESERVE — No matter which way you cut it, the road to the Superdome comes right through St. John the Baptist Parish.

The winner of Friday’s semi-final playoff game between the Riverside Rebels (11-1) and St. Charles Catholic Comets (11-2) will play in the Select Division III state championship.

“This one is really the one that opens up the door to the Superdome for you,” said Bill Stubbs, Riverside head coach. “There are probably a thousand reasons to get the best effort out of both football teams. I think the message is pretty simple here: One advances, one stays home. It doesn’t get any simpler than that.”

The No. 5 seed Comets will travel only a few miles to take on the No. 1 seed Rebels in a matchup that could be the talk of football legend for years to come.

“Anytime these two teams get together it is classic because, No. 1, most of these kids know each other and, No. 2, the families of each team knows each other real well,” Stubbs said.

Only one of two losses the Comets have suffered on the year came in a 35-3 loss in week 8.

Despite the lopsided win earlier in the season, Stubbs anticipates the Comets will come out strong.

“I don’t suspect they look at us as being the same team, and we certainly don’t look at them as being the same team,” Stubbs said. “The beauty of it is on both sides you go back and look at the things you did good and the things you did bad, and you try to correct those mistakes.”

The Rebels are riding an 11-game win streak. Since the playoffs began, they have not shown signs of slowing down. Riverside has plowed through the last two games with a 55-8 win over Northlake Christian two weeks ago and a 38-15 victory over Newman last week.

In contrast, the Comets have grinded two gutty wins this playoff season with a 14-0 victory over Opelousas Catholic in round one and a 13-12 victory last week over Madison Prep, which was undefeated coming into the game.

St. Charles Catholic head coach Frank Monica said he hopes the tough win the Comets racked up over Madison Prep gives his players some momentum coming into the Riverside game.

“Our kids were resilient and played hard throughout the ballgame and didn’t give up when things got tough,” Monica said. “I was very proud of the way they responded last week, and that game taught us a lot. We can draw some confidence from that game because they were a big, tailwind team on the road that was undefeated and they knew how to win.”

Going into the Riverside game, Monica said his team would try to learn from the mistakes made in the first meeting between the teams.

“It is just a matter of us executing better,” Monica said. “It is not a magic play, it is not a magic defense. It is all about our kids playing better and playing harder.”

On the season, St. Charles Catholic has boasted the better defense, shuting out four of its 13 opponents. On offense, the Comets’ success is based largely on a strong rushing attack.

Stubbs said he has seen the Comets progress over the year.

“Across the board, I think they’ve gotten better as a team in all phases” Stubbs said. “It is a Frankie Monica-coached team, they don’t make a whole lot of mistakes. You are not going to force them into a lot of mistakes.”

Riverside boasts the stronger offense, having scored at least five touchdowns in each of the past seven games based off of the play of running back Brandon Sanders, as well as Herb McGee and Jared Butler, who have split time at quarterback and wide receiver. Monica said the challenge would be containing the Rebels’ potent offense.

“When you have their kind of offense, it is hard to take away anything,” Monica said. “They have so many weapons. They have quality receivers, a quality running back, quality quarterbacks. It is just a matter of being sound and not giving up big plays.”

Monica said the team that executes better deserves to go to the state championship game.

By Kyle Barnett