Westlake will be hoping to rebound, while St. Louis Catholic hopes to keep rolling when the teams play Friday night at Sulphur’s Matt Walker Memorial Stadium in a key District 3-3A game.

The Rams (3-2, 0-1) were shut out at home by Lake Charles College Prep last week in their district opener and need to win to stay in the title chase. St. Louis (4-1, 2-0) beat South Beauregard 48-0.

Saints head coach Brock Matherne said his team is putting it all together.

“The biggest key for us has been executing,” he said. “We knew what we were capable of and this was our first offseason together. We knew we brought back a lot of pieces from last year so it was a matter of finding an identity. I think we have done that. We tell our kids we don’t focus on the opponent, we focus on us and it is all about execution. The execution in all three phases has been the high point of our season.”

Quarterback James Reina leads the offense with 798 passing yards, 446 rushing yards and 20 total touchdowns, including 539 yards and four TDs over the past two weeks.

“Having to defend six athletes instead of five is a plus,” Matherne said. “When you have a quarterback who can change the game like he can, we’d be foolish not to get him in the run game.

“He’s taken on the challenge of being a second-year starter. The maturity, knowing when to run rather than throw it into traffic, has been the biggest key. We call a lot of his run, but he does a good job of finding space when we call drop-back passes.”

The Saints defense has not allowed a point in seven consecutive quarters and has scored 93 points in two district games.

“We started slow but are finishing fast defensively,” Matherne said. “The front seven is the key. It is a junior-led group but are all returning starters. When they are playing fundamental ball we are a lot better. That’s the biggest difference from last year, the fundamentals. We tackle better, get off blocks better.”

Westlake made a strong impression on Matherne in last year’s 61-23 Rams win.

“We saw them last year and they gave us a pretty good whipping,” he said. “You don’t forget when you lose a game like that. I have been impressed with the running ability of the quarterback (Jace Dawson), he gets downhill. They have a good receiving corps. They have an impressive front seven and have the ability to man you up. They have a really good coach in John Richardson. Hopefully we will have put the hay in the barn and be ready to go.”