Three teams reside at the top of the District 3-3A high school football standings, but the next three weeks will completely change the landscape.

Defending district champion St. Louis Catholic (5-1, 3-0 District 3-3A), Iowa (4-2, 3-0) and Lake Charles College Prep (3-3, 2-0) are undefeated in district in what could be a tight race with five of seven teams in the district ranked in the top 16 in their respective divisions.

“I was talking to Coach Tommy Johns the other day and the end of all of our schedules,” St. Louis Catholic head coach Brock Matherne said. “I think for us, College Prep and Iowa, this is a real big test for all three of us going into the playoffs, and even Jennings.

“It is all good tests, and we all have to play each other. I always say this is one of the toughest districts in the state.”

Last year was full of tight games between the trio. St. Louis scored 15 fourth-quarter points to beat then-defending district champion LCCP, while Iowa won twice by narrow margins, beating LCCP 17-16 on a fourth-quarter field goal by Matthew Vest and St. Louis 29-21 with the help of three fourth-quarter Saints turnovers.

The shake-up in the standings will start tonight at Matt Walker Memorial Stadium in Sulphur where the Saints host the Trailblazers, while Iowa hosts Westlake (3-3, 0-2), which is trying to bounce back from a three-game losing streak.

“We just look at it as taking it one game at a time,” Matherne said. “We are trying to get to playing our best ball at the end of October, the beginning of November when the playoffs come around. We are looking at Lake Charles College Prep as an opportunity for us to get better.”

Next week, Iowa will play LCCP at Cougar Stadium, then St. Louis travels to Iowa in Week 9.

For LCCP, it will be the Trailblazers’ third game against a ranked opponent. They led St. James 9-7 in the second quarter last week after an explosive 81-yard kickoff return by Mathew Higginbotham before losing 39-16.

“Year in and year out, they just have a lot of speed,” Matherne said of LCCP. “They are very big-play dangerous in the sense that, if you miss a tackle, they will take it to the house on you.

“Their special teams, as far as their return game, I don’t think anybody around this area has a better return game. They just have that explosive ability that if you kick it to them they will make you pay for it. I see that as two of the better things that they do. We are going to have to pay close attention to it if we are going to win.”

The Saints say they want to take away the Trailblazers’ big-play ability with their defense (10.2 ppg) and two of the best kicking specialists in the state in place kicker/punter Landon Daughdril (42.1-yard punt average, seven inside the 20) and Zachry Sugandi (59 yards average per kickoff, 27 touchbacks).

“I have been loving the way our defense has been playing, then our special teams give us an advantage that not many teams have in the state,” Matherne said. ‘We have been winning that field-position battle pretty much every game.

“For me, that is extremely helpful with the style of football we want to play — running the football and playing defense.”

The Saints have won the turnover battle, forcing 13 and committing three. An interception set up the Saints’ winning drive against LCCP last year.

“We just have to protect the football,” Matherne said. “It is one of those things that I always preach.

“It is not too complicated. We just have to be able to make open-field tackles, stay on our blocks, protect the football and not turn the ball over. At the end of the day, we have to put points into the end zone and stop them from doing what they do well. At the end of the day, I think it is going to come down to who does the little things better.”