The District 3-3A high school football race thinned out in Week 7, and Sam Houston bounced back from its first loss.

Three teams entered the week undefeated in District 3-3A: St. Louis Catholic (6-1, 4-0), Lake Charles College Prep and Iowa (5-2, 4-0). The Saints ruled the Trailblazers (3-4, 2-1) last week, 34-7.

St. Louis’ defense set the tone, limiting LCCP to 180 yards of total offense and a touchdown on an 80-yard pass from Elijah Garrick to Kyrian Gaskins.

Senior linebacker Graham Montet recorded 10 tackles to become the school’s all-time leader with 340, besting former record holder Collin Todd (2008-2010, 330 tackles). Kade Nugent made 11 tackles, 3.5 tackles for loss, and two sacks, and Luke Mere added 10 tackles.

Montet also scored his 10th rushing touchdown of the season and tossed one to Nathan Ughovwa, who also caught one from Luke Pierson.

Iowa blanked Westlake 38-0 behind another big night from quarterback Josiah Bushnell. He threw for 238 yards and three scores. He has eight passing touchdowns in his last three games.

Iowa will host St. Louis Catholic in Week 9. The Yellow Jackets will play LCCP this week on Friday at Cougar Stadium, while the Saints will step away from district play for long road game to Galliano to take on South Lafourche.

District 3-5A

Sam Houston (6-1, 5-1) rebounded from a 56-13 Week 6 loss to No. 7 Acadiana to beat Lafayette 34-21 on the road and stay within a game of District 3-5A leaders Acadiana (5-2, 5-0) and No. 6 Carencro (7-0, 6-0), who will meet in Week 9.

Broncos junior running back Drew Bailey had a monster night with a career-high 267 yards and two touchdowns on 21 carries. He has scored at least one touchdown in each game.

Barbe (4-3, 2-3) won its third game in four weeks with a 35-17 thumping of New Iberia (9-7, 0-5) at home.

Freshman quarterback Jelandon Gray completed 82.4 percent of his passes (14 of 17) and threw two touchdown passes. Senior Collin Harris had two rushing and one receiving touchdown and had 100 all-purpose yards.

Classie Ballou (14), Jack Sonnier (13) and Michael Fulton (10) combined for 37 tackles.

District 3-4A

Leesville (4-3, 2-0) and DeRidder (4-3, 1-1) battled for the Hooper Trophy. It was the 102nd time the rivals had met on the gridiron.

DeRidder looked to have the advantage coming out of halftime as it scored twice in a little more than 8 minutes, including a gamble on an onside kick. But Leesville’s Xavier Ford ruled the fourth quarter with two touchdowns, including an explosive 51-yarder.

Ford topped 200 yards for the third time this season with 231 on 26 carries.

District 4-3A

Jennings (5-2, 2-1) extended its win streak to three with a 35-7 win over South Beauregard (2-5, 0-4) at Jerry Simmons Stadium in Jennings.

ReJohn Zeno scored three touchdowns for the second time in 2023 and averaged 13.6 yards a carry (12-163).

The Bulldogs defense produced its fourth touchdown when Humphrey Ned scored on a 35-yard interception return.

Kinder’s Logan Lebeouf ran for a season-high 272 yards on 26 carries and scored three touchdowns, but Breaux Bridge beat the host Yellow Jackets (3-4) 46-36 in a non district game.

Class 2A

Welsh (5-2, 2-0) pushed its area-best win streak to five with a 22-0 shutout at DeQuincy (2-5, 1-1).

Juniors Ethan Beard and Ayden Miller led the Greyhounds defense with 13 tackles each.

Hayden VanNess was held under 100 yards for the first time this season and scored two touchdowns for a second consecutive week.

After getting shut out in back-to-back games, Rosepine (3-4, 1-0) exploded for a season-high 48 points and shut out Pickering (0-7, 0-2).

Rosepine ran nine plays, scoring on six of them as the game had a 12-minute running clock in the first quarter and 5 minutes each for the other three quarters.

Landyn Lawerence scored on a 65-yard kickoff return after the Eagles forced a safety.

Oakdale (5-2) ended a two-game slide with a 47-8 nondistrict win over Mamou senior Ruffin George and freshman Jacarvi Alsbury combined for 264 yards and four touchdowns.

Grand Lake (4-3, 1-1) shut out Lake Arthur (4-3, 0-2) 28-0 to even its District 5-2A record behind 101 yards and a touchdown by running back Ian Vigo.

District 5-1A

The district race experienced a big shake-up last week after Elton (5-2, 3-1) beat East Beauregard (4-3, 2-1) 30-14, and Oberlin knocked off Basile, leaving all four teams with one district loss.

Elton junior running back Tristan Leblanc recorded his fifth multi-touchdown game with three, plus 160 yards on 23 carries to put him at 1,136 yards in seven games.

In Oberlin, the Tigers (5-2, 3-1) beat the Bearcats (4-3, 3-1) 20-16 for the first time since 2019 behind 100-yard games from quarterback Seth Lyons (8-105, 2 TDs) and running back Desean Deville (14-124, 1 rec. TD).