Livonia slips past Church Point for 5-3A title

CHURCH POINT – The Church Point Bears rallied from an 18-0 deficit early in the first half and were in position to tie the game with three seconds remaining when Kian Richard lined up for a 31-yard field goal attempt.
But Livonia’s Diante Bridgewater shattered the Bears’ hopes of sending the game into overtime when he came off the edge and blocked the kick, allowing the visitors to hold on for a 24-21 victory.
The victory gave the Wildcats a 9-0 record and the District 5-3A crown. The Bears fell to second place and 9-1 overall.
“I’m just so proud of the guys. The fight… I’m talking both teams, (they) should be proud,” said Livonia coach Guy Mistretta. “We fought to the end and it prepares us both for the playoffs.”
For Church Point, that fight and determination was evident after the Wildcats jumped out to an 18-0 lead with just over three minutes remaining in the first quarter. The Bears went on to outscore Livonia 21-6 from that point.
“I think that says a lot about the character of our kids and the character of our program and where it has come,” said CPHS coach John Craig Arceneaux of his team’s rally. “I think 10 years ago or 15 years ago, we might have got beaten 60-0 after we got down 18-0. The kids fought hard and they continued to play. We felt like we matched up and we just needed to keep making plays. But you can’t spot a team like that 18 points.”
Things started off badly for the Bears (9-1, 4-1) when they mishandled the opening kickoff and Livonia was able to recover the muffed kick at the CPHS 20-yard line. From there it took just one play for them to score. Malcolm Dedrick took a handoff from Cee Jay Powell and raced 20-yards for the first touchdown of the night. After a missed extra point attempt, the Wildcats led 6-0 with 11:50 remaining in the opening quarter.
Things only got worse after that.
The Bears went three-and-out on their first possession and the Wildcats blocked the punt to take over at the CPSH 33. A big pass play to Kendrick Paul got Livonia down to the 2-yard line before they were pushed back on an illegal substitution call. On the very next play, Patrick Queen rushed in from seven yards out and after a failed two-point conversion; the Wildcats led 12-0.
The Bears looked as if they would answer on their next drive when they marched down the field to the LHS 12-yard line on runs by Deion Monroe and Christian Veronie and a pass to Jacques Wimberly.
The potential scoring drive was thwarted, however, when the Bears failed to pick up a first down and then had a 30-yard field goal attempt by Richard sail wide right.
The Wildcats took advantage of the Bears’ missed opportunity and they did so in just two plays.
A short run by Dedrick was followed by a 62-yard touchdown pass to Donovan Robertson to push the Wildcats’ lead to 18-0.
The Bears had another missed opportunity just outside of the red zone when they fumbled at their own 30-yard line.
Livonia, however, returned the favor one play later when Alex Higginbotham intercepted a pass at the 26.
This time, the Bears did capitalize.
After five straight runs, Deion Monroe took a handoff and crossed the goal line on a 2-yard run to cut the lead to 18-7 at the end of the first quarter.
The Bears missed out on another possible scoring opportunity in the second quarter when Grant Sonnier picked off Powell and returned it to the LHS 14-yard line. The short drive stalled when Monroe failed to pick up a first down on a fourth-and-one situation.
Neither team was able to find the end zone in the second quarter and the score remained 18-7 at the intermission.
“Early in the game, we left some things out there,” said Arceneaux. “On the fourth down, we felt like we had a good play for what they were giving us at the time. Deion tried to bounce the ball wide; there was a seam inside to get the first down and he didn’t make it. We left three points there when we missed the field goal early, too. You know, hats off to our kids, Livonia is a good football team and you just can’t make the mistakes we early and expect to win those football games.”
Livonia began to pull away in the second half when they took the opening kickoff and drove 72 yards on 12 plays, upping their lead to 24-7 on a 10-yard touchdown run by Powell.
That early second half score did didn’t seem to faze the Bears, however.
They responded with a touchdown drive of their own when they marched 50 yards in 10 plays to cut the lead to 24-14 on a 2-yard scoring run by Christian Veronie.
The Bears then caught another big break when they stopped a fake punt by Livonia near midfield and turned around five plays later with another touchdown. This time it was Troy Matte who scored on the quarterback keeper before tossing a successful 2-point conversion pass to Monroe to get within three (24-21) with 11:50 remaining in the game.
“We have been a second-half team all year. Coming into tonight, we had outscored our opponents 141-15 in the third quarter so we knew we had some gas left in the tank,” said Arceneaux. “We knew our kids weren’t going to lie down. It was just, ‘Could we make enough plays to get ourselves back into the game? Could we get enough stops and could we get a couple of things to go our way?’ ”
Things looked to be going Church Point’s way when they forced the Wildcats to punt with just over a minute remaining.
Starting at their own 18, Matte hit Monroe for an 11-yard pass and a roughing the passer penalty was tacked on, moving the Bears to the 44 with 1:07 remaining. A pair of pass plays to Frederick Williams and Monroe got the ball to the LHS 31 before Frederick hauled in another pass at the 16-yard line. The Bears used another short pass to get to the center of the field and then used their final timeout to set up the last-second field goal attempt.
Dedrick paced Livonia’s ground attack with 161 yards and a touchdown on 25 carries while Powell rushed 10 times for 77 yards and a score.
Powell also completed five passes for 134 yards and a touchdown. He hit Robertson once for 62 yards while Stephen Guidry had one reception for 36 yards.
Veronie was the leader for the Bears with 97 yards and a touchdown on 21 carries. He was followed by Williams with 65 yards on 14 carries and Monroe, who had 35 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries.
Matte completed 12 passes for 121 yards. Monroe was his main target with four catches for 35 yards while Williams had three catches for 42 yards. Wimberly hauled in three passes for 29 yards and John Wyatt Treme had one catch for 13 yards.
The Wildcats will likely jump Church Point for the No. 1 seed in the Class 3A playoffs while the Bears should fall to the No. 2 spot. The playoff brackets will be released today.
All in all, the Bears are still in a very good position entering postseason play.
“If you can’t be the No. 1 seed, the next best place to be is No. 2 and we’ll take that,” said Arceneaux. “We’ll see what the matchups are and try to string four wins together and maybe play Dec. 13 in New Orleans.
“There are 32 teams next week who will get a chance to go after that goal so we’ll continue to work. We’ve got to bounce back and we’re going to try and do that.”