Eagles rally past Loreauville, 27-21

LOREAUVILLE — The Vermilion Catholic Eagles led in virtually every statistical category at halftime of their football game at Loreauville on Friday, but it was two of those statistical categories — penalties and turnovers — that kept the Eagles from building a big lead.
The Eagles largely cleaned up those mistakes in the second half to capture a 27-21 win, remaining unbeaten at 3-0 on the season heading into this week's game against Erath.Vermilion Catholic head coach Broc Prejean said his team never got down despite the mistakes, and that allowed them to prevail.
"Trust in our guys," Prejean said. "The sideline never got somber. Those kids love each other, and that's carrying them through a lot of this. Every week has been tough. Every week we've seen adversity. As a coach, you're excited to see it because you want to see how your team responds, and right now, the response has been overwhelmingly great."
VC outrushed the Tigers 106-30 in the first half and completed six of 11 passes for 106 yards to Loreauville's 61 yards on 7 of 19 passing.
But Vermilion Catholicalso was penalized six times for 55 yards to Loreauville's three flags for 30 yards, and lost three fumbles while collecting one interception against LHS on the final play of the half, a fake field goal.
The result was a 14-14 tie heading into the break.
"It's on us," Prejean said. "It starts with me. I've got to clean up the turnovers and we've got to address some penalties. This is three weeks (in a row) that we're hurting ourselves on drives. I'm really proud of the resiliency and the ability to overcome a lot of that tonight. I think that's the story of the game. Loreauville played a heck of a game as well."
Loreauville jumped out to a 7-0 lead on a 48-yard fumble return by Kylon Polk on the third snap of the game. The Tigers led 14-0 on a 12-yard quarterback keeper by Trevor Dooley with 3:57 left in the first quarter.
The Eagles chopped that lead in half on a one-yard run by Jonathan Dartez with 10:01 left in the half, then used a three-play drive to knot the score with 1:41 remaining. A 38-yard pass from Dartez to Ross Dartez set up a 23-yard scoring run by Tyjh Williams two snaps later.
WIlliams finished the game with 75 yards on 14 carries. Jonathan Dartez had 98 yards on 28 rushes.
The Tigers went back on top 21-14 on a 15-yard pass following yet another VC fumble.
But the Eagles only turned the ball over one more time, on an interception, and scored the final 13 points on a one-yard keeper by Dartez and a 14-yard throw from Dartez to Dane Richoux, the latter coming with 8:13 to go, and following a fumble recovery by VC.
"We made plays when we absolutely had to (on defense)," Prejean said. "Bend, don't break, and make them cross the goal line, and we were able to take a few away in a timely manner. Hats off to coach (Brett) Blakey and the defense. They carried us definitely through that first half."
Dartez finished 7-for-12 for 104 yards and William Simon was 3-for-5 for 60 yards in the air for VC.
Ross Dartez had 61 yards on three catches, with Jonathan Dartez catching two for 37 and Jyrin Bessard catching two passes for 26 yards.