Catholic High scored three lightning-quick touchdowns to jump ahead of District 6-3A leader E.D. White 21-0 after one quarter of their showdown Friday night at Panther Stadium.

But the Cardinals used some lightning of their own to pull within a TD at halftime, and a thundering running game to dominate the second half, pulling out a 35-21 win that clinched the outright district championship and sends E.D. White into the playoffs as the likely No. 2 seed in Class 3A.

Thomas Theriot returned the opening kickoff 87 yards for a touchdown to give CHS a 7-0 lead only 16 seconds into the game, and the Panthers took advantage of two fumbles to score two more TDs in a 22-second span for a 21-0 advantage heading into the second quarter.

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The Panthers (6-4, 3-2) were still ahead 21-7 when they took possession with an interception in the end zone with 21⁄2 minutes to go in the half, and had marched to midfield with less than half a minute to go, but fumbled the ball on a third-down handoff, giving the Cardinals possession at the 49.

After an incomplete pass on first down, quarterback Grant Chiasson rolled right and threw deep, and CHS committed the cardinal sin of allowing a receiver to get behind the defense on the final play of the half, resulting in a 49-yard scoring strike to Tyler Thibodeaux that made it 21-14.

To compound that mistake, the Panthers roughed the kicker and got an unsportsmanlike conduct flag thrown on the same play, and were forced to kick off from their own 20 to start the second half. An additional offside penalty on the kick forced CHS to kick from the 15, and E.D. White took advantage of great field position to knot the score quickly at 21-21.

“I tell the kids all the time, you have to weather the storm,” said CHS coach Craig Brodie. “That was definitely a hurricane (E.D. White) was going through, but they weathered it and came back.”

“I’ve not been associated with a lot of teams that get down 21-0 that fast, and believe they can win,” said EDW coach Kyle Lasseigne, whose team finished 9-1 and 5-0. “Even though we fell behind like that, I believed we would come back and win.”

Both coaches said the touchdown at halftime was a key point of the game.

“We just didn’t answer,” said Brodie. “I have to give E.D. White all the credit. They have a tough defense. They held Patterson to one touchdown, offensively. That’s by far the best defense we’ve seen.”

The Cardinals held CHS without a first down in the second half, and limited a high-powered offensive attack to 138 total yards, even outpassing one of the top quarterback-receiver tandems in the state.

Taylor Bullock, who was ranked fourth in the state in passing yards heading into Friday’s game, finished 10-for-20 for 82 yards with two interceptions. Devin Boutte, who was second in the state with 1,011 yards receiving, was held to three catches for 32 yards.

“You have to credit them,” said Theriot. “They’re a smart team, very competitive. They beat Patterson took, and that’s a good team.”

On the other side of the ball, Chiasson completed eight of 15 passes for 130 yards with two touchdowns and an interception. Jacob Rodrigue had five catches for 59 yards and a TD for the Cards.

“We took advantage of some things in the passing game,” said Lasseigne. “I think we can do those things, we just haven’t had to do them. When you’ve got those guys in the backfield that we have, you have to make a decision. Are you going to cover (the pass) or are you going to put eight in the box to try to stop the run? They decided to put eight in the box. I don’t blame them.”

The Cardinals also benefited from size and depth advantages in the second half. As Brodie noted, EDW’s starting tackles weighed in at 295 and 288 pounds and its guards average 240, while CHS has a couple of 165-pounders on its defensive front. Catholic High also is forced to play several of its starters on both offense and defense, while EDW only had a couple who went both ways.

And once E.D. White made it all about the matchups, there was little the Panthers could do. The Cardinals pounded away for 293 rushing yards, including 135 by 210-pound fullback Dylan Ledet. Ledet had only 14 yards on eight first-half carries, but averaged more than 81⁄2 yards a carry in the second half, including a spectacular 25-yard run on his first carry of the third quarter where he stepped out of one tackle, broke another and dragged a pack of defenders an additional 15 yards before being stopped.

Chiasson found Rodrigue open on a slant for a 10-yard TD to cap the game-tying drive with 8:53 to go in the third quarter. E.D. White took the lead for good on their next drive, with Thibodeaux gaining 28 yards on a reverse, Dontrea Harris running for 13 yards on another run and Ledet gashing CHS for runs of 11, 15 and seven yard, the latter a touchdown with 3:51 to go in the third quarter.

CHS had a shot to get back in it after forcing a fumble on the Cardinals’ first play the next time E.D. White got the ball, but two plays later, Bullock was picked off to end that threat at the Cardinals’ 23.

EDW tacked on a 14-yard TD carry by Chiasson with just under two minutes to go for the final margin.

The Panthers were flying high early on. Theriot fielded the opening kickoff on the bounce and raced to the end zone for the quick early lead.

“Knowing this could possibly be my last game on this field, I just had to break loose,” said Theriot, a senior. “I just had to do everything in my power.”

Catholic High’s two first-quarter offensive possessions went for 54 yards, capped by Theriot’s four-yard carry with 1:40 to go, and 20 yards on one play, a pass from Bullock to Boutte, who snatched the ball away from a defender in the end zone with 1:18 left in the opening period.

That play came after an attempted trick return failed miserably. After Theriot’s second touchdown, Thibodeaux fielded the kickoff, headed upfield and handed off to Jacob Daigle, who was facing his own goal line. Daigle then handed to Josh Jennings, who couldn’t hold onto the ball, and Tyler Landry recovered at the 20 for the Panthers.

“The seniors talked about this before the game,” said CHS linebacker/receiver Cory Brodie. “We realized this might be our last game at home. We helped ourselves, but E.D. White hurt themselves.

“We still had confidence going in until that last touchdown, when it was 35-21 with less than two minutes left.”

“All day we’d just been getting hyped up, sending text messages to each other,” said Theriot. “It would’ve been a three-way tie for the district championship.”

Instead, E.D. White didn’t want to share its district title, as Lasseigne told his team after the game.

“It’s a great feeling,” he said. “It’s something I don’t think a lot of people thought we could accomplish.”

Both teams find out today where they will be seeded for the playoffs and who their opening opponents will be. CHS, unofficially 20th before the game, will likely be seeded in the mid-20s and play a top 10 seeded team on the road.

“I think one thing about playing on the road, it kind of excites us,” said Cory Brodie. “We get pumped up playing in somebody’s house, in an underdog role.”