No. 11 Roneagles up set No. 6 Saints
Published 12:21 am Saturday, November 18, 2023
- McDonogh 35 quarterback Santana Price threw three touchdown passes and ran for another on Friday at the No. 11 Roneagles beat No. 6 St. Louis Catholic 53-23 at Matt Walker Memorial Stadium in the regional round of the Select Division II playoffs. (Rodrick Anderson / American Press)
SULPHUR — No. 11 McDonogh 35 put the pressure on No. 6 St. Louis Catholic early in Friday’s Select Division II regional playoff game at Matt Walker Memorial Stadium and quarterback Santana Price expertly guided the offense.
The Roneagles forced four turnovers and had four sacks to route the Saints 53-23 and advance to the quarterfinals. They will travel to No. 3 Lafayette Christian.
St. Louis (8-3) had a big fourth down play to stop McDonogh (8-3) on its first drive when Graham Montet stopped Troydell Beal behind the lineup scrimmage. But the Roneagles match it and then some, dropping Saint quarterback Luke Pierson for a loss on consecutive plays, and Peyton McFarland recovered a fumble. Jakai Anderson scored on a 2-yard run as the Roneagles built a 27-0 lead.
Price accounted for four touchdowns and 330 yards. He ran for a game-high 162 yards, plus a touchdown, on 11 carries and completed 11 of 17 passes for 168 yards and three touchdowns. The Roneagles finished with 449 yards of total offense.
The Saints were never able to completely dig out from a 27-7 first-half deficit and gained only 9 total yards of offense in the first half.
“Two things worried me,” St. Louis Catholic head coach Brock Matherne said. “One of them was us starting slow because of the bye.
“We hadn’t played in a while and we played pretty bad in our last outing versus Jennings, especially offensively. We dropped the ball twice in the first drive and we came back in the second drive and dropped the ball again. All in key areas. I don’t know the stats, but I am sure they won the time of possession by a lot, and they won the turnover battle by a lot. We can’t win a football game, especially a second-round football game, turning the ball over the way we did.”
St. Louis cut the deficit to three possessions 10 seconds into the fourth quarter on a 40-yard pass from Andrew Svarney to Nathan Ughovwa, but on the Roneagles’ next offensive play Price broke loose for a 58-yard touchdown to push its lead to 47-21.
St. Louis’ Luke Pierson completed 10 of 20 passes for 193 yards and two touchdowns to Trey Tate, who caught seven passes for 112 yards.
