The Lafayette Christian Academy Knights took the sting out of the Hornets as they used a strong second half to blow past Franklin 43-6 on Thursday night.
“I’m proud of the way our team competed, especially because we were on fall break and not in school until today,” LCA coach Matt Standiford said. “And it was our first Thursday game. I thought our kids responded in such a great way.”
The game started out well for the Hornets, though, when sophomore quarterback Dylan Hawkins found senior wide receiver Jahiri Perry for a 69-yard touchdown pass only 1:13 into the ball game.
From that point on, though, it was all LCA.
The Knights responded by converting on fourth-and-5 from the 8. Junior running back Kyzir White plowed his way into the end zone and tied the score at 6-6. The score would stay tied until early in the second quarter when junior wide receiver Kaden Ledet caught a screen pass and went 29 yards for the score.
The Knights then built on their 13-6 lead when senior defensive end Josh Wilson caused a safety. Wilson finished the game with seven tackles, two sacks and two forced fumbles.
In the third quarter, Ledet struck again, taking the opening kickoff of the second half 82 yards for a touchdown, giving LCA a 22-6 lead, a play Standiford said “spark(ed) us in the second half.”
Senior quarterback Ty Hills would go on to throw three more touchdown passes — two of them to sophomore wide receiver Micah Whitlock and the other to junior wide receiver Tristen Jones — to round out the scoring for the Knights.
“For the first two quarters, we were all out of sync,” Hills said. “At halftime, though, we made some adjustments. I just have to trust my arm and go out there and deliver the ball.”
Hills had his best game as a Knight, completing 13 of 20 passes for 182 yards and four touchdowns.
“Ty did a great job and settled in,” Standiford said. “People are going to look at how he played tonight and may be be a little surprised, but it’s what we’ve seen in practice, especially the last couple of weeks.”
“I want to thank my coaches for pushing me,” said Whitlock, who took advantage of his opportunity to get more playing time Thursday night. “They’ve been telling me all week that if I grind during the week, then it’ll pay off on game day, and they were right.”
And, on defense, senior linebacker Kaleb Simon returned after missing last week’s win over West St. Mary with an injury to lead the team with 16 tackles, three tackles for loss and two forced fumbles.
“We came out healthy, and we will be ready to go next week against a really good Loreauville team,” Standiford said.
“We can’t be complacent,” said Hills as the Knights begin a three-game stretch against Loreauville, Delcambre and Catholic of New Iberia to close out the regular season. “We’ve got to be able to dominate at all levels, not just defensively. We have to execute on offense, mainly in the passing game, to go along with our rushing attack.”
LCA will host Loreauville on senior night next Friday.
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