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CROWLEY — Thursday’s District 6-2A showdown between No. 2 Notre Dame and No. 9 Welsh was expected to be a big battle, but it quickly turned into a rout.

Notre Dame (9-0, 3-0) senior running back Noah Bourgeois scored three first-half touchdowns to lead the Pioneers to a 57-0 blowout and claim at least a share of the district championship.

Bourgeois scored on runs of 5 and 84 yards and caught a 64-yard touchdown pass from Ben Broussard. He finished with 100 yards rushing and 63 receiving.

Down 13-0, Welsh (6-3, 2-1) had a chance to cut the Pios lead in half. Jaheim Simon broke through the Pios defense and raced up the middle of the field for a 40-yard gain. Brian Cormier’s 8-yard reception moved the ball to Notre Dame’s 21-yard line but then the Greyhounds went backwards for three plays.

Two bad snaps cost the Greyhounds 16 yards and a false start knocked them back another 5, forcing a punt.

“We came out and made too many mistakes,” Welsh head coach John Richardson said. “They are a really good football team and you have to play much better than we did to have a shot at them.”

Welsh’s other two trips into Notre Dame territory ended on turnovers, including a 70-yard pick-six by sophomore defensive back Dominic Thibodeaux with 3:26 left in the game.

Welsh went into the game averaging more than 42 points a game, but the Pios held the Greyhounds to 162 yards, 98 yards in the first half. Simon had 111 of those yards on 23 carries. It was the first time Welsh has been shutout since Week 3 of the 2006 when it lost to Jennings 41-0.

Welsh will look to regroup next week when it travels to Ville Platte to close out the regular season.

“We will just go back and try to fix all the things that we did wrong, regroup and try to make a run like we did a year ago,” Richardson said.

Notre Dame never needed more than four plays on any of its eight scoring drives and finished with 460 yards of total offense.

After Welsh punted down 13-0 in the first quarter, Notre Dame needed two plays to put the game away when Bourgeois took the handoff and ran up the near sideline for an 84-yard score.

Notre Dame (9-0, 3-0) went to its bag of tricks on its second play from scrimmage. Bourgeois lined up in the wildcat formation and pitched the ball to Broussard who hit Kaizer Lamm for a 56-yard score.

“We felt like it was important to try to get off to a fast start because Welsh is a good team and I knew they would come ready to play,” Notre Dame head coach Lewis Cook said. “Kaizer did a good job of selling it like a run.”

Broussard threw four touchdown passes longer than 56 yards and completed 6 of 9 passes for 296 yards. Lamm finished with two catches for 126 yards and two score and Bellard had two catches for 117 yards.

Even when Welsh was able to put pressure on Broussard, he found a way to make a play. With 4:15 left in the third quarter, it looked as if Alec Iguess had Broussard corned deep in the backfield, but he got loose and fired a 67-yard touchdown to Bellard.

Notre Dame will close out the regular season next week on the road at Lake Arthur.

Notre Dame 57, Welsh 0