Notre Dame remains perfect with victory over Patriots

CROWLEY – Notre Dame coaches insisted all week long that their game against North Vermilion would be like night and day from what they have seen so far in the competition of District 6-3A and they were right. For a quarter!
The Pios sputtered through a scoreless first period and actually trailed for the first time in a game this season until junior linebacker Mathew Hanks flipped on the switch with a game changing sack to force a fumble. The Pios defense dominated the meeting of league unbeatens and electrified the homecoming crowd with a 42-3 win.
“They came out and really fought us hard early in the game,” said Pios coach Lewis Cook. “We didn’t help ourselves offensively with some mistakes, but our defense was lights out the whole game. We got it going with a drive in the second quarter to take the lead and finished the half with another nice drive.”
Notre Dame held the Patriots to 97 total yards, did not allow a third down conversion in ten tries, intercepted two passes and recovered a pair of fumbles. The Pios offense racked up 380 total yards, converted 6 of 8 third downs and scored on special teams and defense.
Yes, it was again that one sided! And most all of that happened in the second and third quarters.
North Vermilion did have the Pios on their heels in the first quarter with a 35 yard pass from Ty Desormeaux to Seth Patin into Pios territory. The Pats settled for a 51 yard field goal from All-State kicker Trey Broussard for the first points of the game.
Notre Dame responded with a 10 play drive from the Pios 20 to the Pats 23. NV linebacker Terrance Lollis intercepted a Brad Stoma pass to end the threat and returned 23 yards to the Pats 43.
On third and nine from the 44, Pios linebacker Mathew Hanks fired through blockers to force a fumble as Desormeaux dropped to pass. Hunter Stelly, who was in on 15 tackles to lead the defensive effort, recovered the loose ball on the North Vermilion 45.
“They switched a few things that made it a little difficult at first, but it was close to what we had seen and we made the adjustments,” noted Stelly. “On the sideline before that series, we talked about making a big play on defense to get things started. The fumble and the interception return did that.”
Lance Bertrand led the ground game with 75 yards on eight carries and picked up 19 of those yards on a shifty first down run. Stoma lofted a pass between defenders to Kevin Frank at the Pats 20 and the senior receiver turned the out route up the sideline, cut inside a tackler at the five and completed a 31 yard TD pass. Dustin Reiners kicked the point after to erase the short lived North Vermilion lead.
“They were building a little momentum and there is no doubt about the fumble turning it our way a little,” added Cook. “Then we got the punt return and you could see the tide start to turn. You let a team like that hang around and it makes life tough.”
The Pats went three and out and Gavin Bourgeois took a punt on the run to his right at the Pios 39. Three strides brought Bourgeois behind a wall of blockers and on the way to a 61 yard return for a 14-3 Pios lead.
Three plays later, ND linebacker Kade Smith intercepted a deflected pass and sliced through defenders for a 30 yard touchdown. Reiners added the PAT for a 21-3 Pios lead.
It gets worse for North Vermilion. Desormeaux hung up another pass down the sideline and Gavin Bourgeois closed from his free safety position for a diving interception at the 50 yard line.
Brad Stoma got the offense in gear for a score with 21 seconds left in the half. Kevin Frank had a big night with five catches for 93 yards and took a Stoma pass for 20 yards to the Pats 30. Two plays later, Stoma connected with Joe Faulk for a 22 yard gain. Faulk gained 69 yards on 5 runs and caught two passes for 23 yards in the game.
On first and goal, Stoma dropped back and looked left, looked over the middle and looked right where he found nothing but green grass for an eight yard TD run. The Reiners extra point made it 28-3 at halftime.
“They were moving the front around on us and we just didn’t execute like we should have early on,” explained quarterback Brad Stoma. “Our offensive line worked things out and really stepped it up. It felt like I had all night to just sit back there and find the open receiver.”
Notre Dame drove 80 yards on 10 plays with their first possession of the second half. Stoma connected with Frank for 11 yards on the sideline and Lance Bertrand slashed through the zone blocking scheme for a 22 yard gain. Joe Faulk picked up 14 yards in the middle to the NV 30.
“We had to figure out where they would be on defense,” continued Cook. “We narrowed it down a little as to what we needed to do and popped a few plays to make things interesting.”
Stoma went back to the airways for a 14 yard completion to Frank on a night that saw the junior QB complete 9 of 14 passes for 141 yards. Two plays later, Faulk powered 15 yards into the end zone taking tacklers with him. Reiners kicked the point after for a 35-3 Pios lead.
The Pios defense recorded its fourth turnover of the game when Christian Landry forced a fumble and Jacob Mooney plucked the ball from mid-air at the Pats 20 and returned five yards. On fourth down at the Pats 10, Stoma threw for Luke Habetz on an out route. Habetz made the catch and turned it up the sideline and nearly scored. Shea Zaunbrecher took it In and ReIners kicked his sixth PAT for the 42-3 final score.
“Our guys know there are some teams out there that aren’t going to just let us have our way like the past few weeks,” Cook summed up. “It was good for us to be challenged and to get back to that mentality of dealing with challenges.”
Notre Dame will look to sew up another district championship at Kaplan next week in the regular season finale.