Bobcats spoil Eagles’ season opener

The Erath Bobcats spoiled the season opener of the Vermilion Catholic Eagles, winning, 32-17.

It was a defensive battle in the first half. Both teams went back and forth in the first quarter, shutting each other down. The first basket didn’t happen until 3:42 left in the first quarter.

When the quarter wrapped up, the Bobcats had a small 5-4 advantage.

The second quarter is where the Eagles picked up their game.

Thanks in large part to Donnie Comeaux going on a 6-0 run early in the quarter, all by himself.

The Eagles outscored the Bobcats 8-3 in the second quarter, giving them the 12-8 lead going into halftime.

Coming out of the halftime break, the Bobcats made all the proper adjustments and started playing a little better basketball.

In the third quarter the Bobcat defense was able to hold the Eagles offense to only one point, while scoring nine of its own.

The fourth quarter was much of the same between the two teams.

The Bobcats would go on a 12-2 run to start the fourth quarter.

Alec Toups scored six of his team high 13 points during that 12-2 run. VC would only go on to score four in the fourth quarter, while Erath put up 15, and winning the game 32-17.

“I’m not excited about losing a game, especially when you only score 17 points,” Eagles Head Coach Roch Charpentier said. “We were missing a lot of guys from the lineup, but the guys that were here played hard, and did a lot of what I asked them to do. The future is bright here at VC for the basketball team.”

VC was missing a good portion of its starting lineup.

Most of those starters play on the football team, and won’t join the basketball team until the football season is over.

Coach Charpentier went on to say that most of the players that dressed out for the Eagles were freshmen.

Despite the slow start, EHS head coach Tommie Pilllette knows that’s basketball and sometimes you just have to shoot your way out of a slump.

“We got off to a slow start,” Pillette said. “In the second half we made more of the open shots we had, but that’s basketball. I think we were just more relaxed in the second half and that’s why we played better.”

Erath did have some trouble making its free throws. The Bobcats made only seven of the 23 shots they had from the charity stripe.

“We have to get better at free throws,” Pillette said. “We can’t continue to not convert on free points like that. Free throws is how you win basketball games and we just have to get better.”

Toups was the leading scorer for Erath with 13.

On his tail was Elijah Mitchell with 10 points, six of which were in the fourth quarter.

Rounding out the rest of the scoring for the Bobcats, Jalen Sinegal added four, Justin Music and Ross Bares each added two.

Donnie Comeaux led the way for the Eagles 10 points. Andrew Dronet, Luke Cao and Jansen Weaver each added two, and Payton Theriot scored one.

Both of these teams will be participating in the Erath Tournament which starts tonight.

VC will be taking on Ascension Episcopal tonight at 6:20 p.m.

Erath will play host to the Delcambre Panthers. Game time is scheduled for 7:40 p.m.

Andy Bullard
Sports Editor