The Westgate Tigers didn’t make plays when they had opportunities to do so on Thursday, and the Carencro Bears took advantage of that to run down the Tigers, 31-7, in a District 3-5A football game at Lloyd G. Porter Memorial Stadium.

After marching to a touchdown on their first possession, the Tigers couldn’t put together another scoring drive, turning the ball over on downs three times, once inside the Carencro 3 and once on a fake punt.

Worse, the Tigers fumbled the ball away twice, the first time at their own 10, and had a tough time making tackles, allowing the Bears to make 11 runs of greater than 10 yards, including a 57-yard scoring run and a 20-yard scoring run.

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“We didn’t make the plays when we needed to,” said WHS assistant coach Ryan Antoine. Head coach Brian Fine is in Shreveport because of a family medical emergency that called him away during last week’s game at Lafayette.

“A lot of it was we came out with no intensity,” Antoine added. “I take 100 percent of the blame for that. Basically they just took it to us.”

Carencro improved to 2-5 overall and 2-1 in district. Westgate fell to 2-5 and 1-3.

After stopping the Bears on three downs to start the game, the WHS offense came out smoking hot. Running back Willie Ware ripped off a 15-yard run on the Tigers’ first offensive snap. Nine snaps later, sophomore quarterback Diontae Spencer scored on an eight-yard keeper, cutting sharply inside the only defender with a chance to stop him at the 3-yard line to make it into the end zone upright. The point-after kick by Siegan Vergenal made it 7-0 Westgate at the 5:41 mark of the opening period.

But things went downhill for Westgate after that, and pretty quickly. Carencro answered Westgate’s TD drive with a seven-play, 68-yard drive to tie the score, then scored on the second play of the second quarter to take the lead for good.

Kenny Simmons rumbled through a big hole up the middle for a 24-yard gain on the first drive, setting up a 20-yard QB keeper for a touchdown by Ricky Johnson three plays later. The PAT by Josh Courville with 2:52 left in the first period made it 7-7. Johnson’s 20-yard run on the first play of the second period set up a one-yard TD run by Simmons on the next play, and the point-after made it a 14-7 Carencro lead with 11:48 to go in the half.

“We do everything the hard way,” said Carencro coach Mac Barousse. “We’re still not very good, but at least we were able to finish the game.”

Simmons finished with 131 yards and three touchdowns on 17 carries to lead all rushers. Johnson added 75 yards and a TD on nine runs and Junavion Sias had 12 carries for 68 yards.

“We don’t throw it very well,” said Barousse, whose team went 0-for-2 in the air, with Johnson and Jovannus Domingue each throwing an incompletion. “They had nine in the box most of the first half. Our guys up front did a good job getting them off the ball, and the backs ran hard for a change.”

A sack forced a fumble on Westgate’s next possession, which Justin Charles recovered for CHS at the Tigers’ 10. Two penalties against Carencro, one wiping out a touchdown run, helped the WHS defense hold, and the Bears missed a 42-yard field goal try.

But after Westgate turned the ball over on downs at the Carencro 48, the Bears marched to the WHS 5 before settling for a 22-yard field goal with 1:24 to go for a 17-7 lead.

The half ended with a flurry after the Tigers marched to the Carencro 23 with time running out. WHS called a time out as the clock wound down following a sack, and the referees had to call the Carencro team back onto the field after they saw the clock tick down to 0:00 and ran off to the far end zone.

Vergenal then set up for a 47-yard field goal attempt and boomed the kick through, but Carencro had called a time out just before the snap. After another time out, the Bears blocked the Vergenal kick and recovered downfield, but were flagged for roughing the kicker.

Barousse then spoke to the head official for several minutes, and the official ran back onto the field to wave the penalty off. After briefly explaining to Antoine that there was no roughing because the kick had been blocked, the officials ran off the field themselves, leaving Carencro ahead, 17-7.

Westgate tried to get back into the game midway through the third quarter with a fake punt on a fourth-and-eight play, but Vergenal’s pass was dropped in the open field and Carencro took over at its own 42-yard line. Four plays later, Johnson, the upback in punt formation, gained 18 yards on a fake punt to give the Bears a first down at the Westgate 31, and Simmons scored on a six-yard run five plays after that, on the first snap of the fourth quarter. The PAT made it 24-7 with 11:54 remaining in the game.

“I think the fourth down when they went for it was the turning point,” said Barousse.

Simmons wrapped up the scoring on Carencro’s next possession, breaking one tackle en route to a 57-yard scoring run with 7:50 to go in the game. The PAT made it 31-7.

Ware led the Tigers with 90 yards on 11 runs before injuring his ankle with a couple of minutes left. Spencer added 79 yards on 22 carries and completed four of seven pass attempts for 32 yards. Josh Hopes ran for 43 yards on nine rushes.

Antoine said that though the team faced distractions with Fine out this week, having players like starting quarterback Deon Anthony, starting offensive lineman Shaquille Allen and freshman running back Brandon Malveaux out hurt the Tigers as well.

“I think it was more that we had a couple of guys out,” said Antoine. “That took a lot out of our offense. Players were looking for somebody to turn to (for leadership). I told the guys, this week and next week we’ve got to play on pride. We have to play as a family.”

The Tigers close out the season next Friday with a non-district game against Barbe. Carencro can earn a share of the district title with a home win over Pineville and a Lafayette win over New Iberia next week.