Delcambre upsets Catholic High in OT

DELCAMBRE — Call it the “Miracle on Main.” Call it the upset of the year. Call it a shocker.
Whatever you call it, call it a Delcambre win as the Panthers stunned Catholic High 21-14 in overtime in the District 7-2A opener for both teams Thursday night.
Parker LeBlanc ran for two touchdowns, Rogan Saunier scored the winner in overtime, and the Delcambre defense stopped Catholic High inside the 1-yard line twice to claim its first win over CHS since 1995.
This win means everything,” Saunier said. “We knew we could do this, and we just had to play with grit, as Coach (Artie Liuzza) said.”
And that in a nutshell, was how the Delcambre Panthers pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the 2021 football season. It was about one word - Grit.
“We’ve been talking about turning the corner for a long time. It’s a mentality that you have to have before it happens on the field,” Liuzza said. “When you’ve lost for so long for so many years, it’s hard to build that mentality.
“They believed in it, they played with grit, and they did something that no one gave them a chance to do.”
The grit started with junior quarterback Parker LeBlanc, who put the team on his back in the second half when the Panthers were down 14-0 and scored twice in the third quarter to tie the game. He finished with 115 yards on 25 carries, including a 60-yard touchdown run that tied the game.
“We talked about the definition of grit (at halftime),” LeBlanc said. “And I remember a quote from junior high, ‘It’s not about how hard you get hit, it’s about how hard you get hit and get back up,’
“We knew that we were going to come out that second half and face adversity. Catholic High has a great fan base and great players. But we knew we were going to have bigger grit, and we were going to tear them up.”
LeBlanc also had something else going as the game wore on and the batter reached overtime.
“We got to the fourth quarter, and it was a tie ball game, I was grateful to have another shot,” the junior QB said. “Right before we went into overtime, I looked up into the sky and thought about my dad (Gregory LeBlanc), who played back in the day and passed away when I was two.
“I could feel his No. 52 next to my No. 14 telling me, ‘Come on, we’re going to do this together.’”
In the extra period, Delcambre got the ball first and a run from LeBlanc got the ball to the 2-yard-line and Saunier finished it off for the 21-14 lead.
“All I did was run the ball,” he said. “The O-line got a big push and I punched it in. The O-line did it’s job tonight. We played with grit tonight.”
On Catholic High’s possession, two straight runs got the ball inside the 1. On third down, the Delcambre defense stopped the CHS running back at the line of scrimmage and on fourth down, the DHS defense tackled the Catholic High runner in the backfield to seal the win as the team then some fans, stormed the field.
“We were all out there, and there was nothing they could do against us. We were so hyped up,” defensive lineman Zeb Falgout said. “We were on them all game, they knew they couldn’t get it in, and they didn’t.”
Falgout said the difference between the first half when CHS scored two touchdowns and the second half was that the team knew they could win the game at halftime.
“We knew we could win the game,” Falgout said. “When we came out from halftime, we were fired up and we knew what was going to happen. Our defense played amazing tonight. I don’t know how many yards they had but they earned everyone. We didn’t give up any cheap yards.”
With the win, Delcambre improves to 2-1 on the season, 1-0 in the district as the Panthers prepare to head to Franklin Friday night. Catholic High fell to 2-2, and 0-1 in the district.
Miguel Hernandez finished with 50 yards on seven carries; Cullen Bouton had 21 yards and two carries. Saunier finished with seven hard and a touchdown on three carries and the Delcambre defense held Catholic High to less than 100 yards of total offense.
“As I said at the beginning of the season, this year we’re coming out and making a statement,” LeBlanc said. “The statement is when you leave that field, you’re going to know that you played Delcambre.
“And this win is the beginning of a legacy that we’re starting here.”