Westlake is 5-2 and ranked in the top 10 in the Non-select Division III power ratings, while Lake Charles College Prep is 2-5, but records are not always a good indicator in this District 3-3A football rivalry.

For a third consecutive season, the Rams enter the match with a better record, but they hope it plays to their advantage after losing 44-0 in 2022 and 40-0 in 2023.

“I think they’re a much, much better football team than their record,” Westlake head coach John Richardson said. “I actually think they’re a really good team. They just played a very, very difficult schedule.

“They’ll be the most athletic team that we’ve played all year and the fastest team that we’ve played all year. It’s going to be a big challenge for us.”

LCCP (2-5, 1-1) is coming off a dominant 46-6 win over St. Louis Catholic after playing a stacked non-district schedule that included four top-10 teams. A strong finish could propel the Trailblazers into the top 10 in Select Division III.

“This is a huge game,” LCCP head coach Erick Franklin said. “This is a district rivalry each year in and year out, and it’s always a great opportunity for my boys to be ready to play ball.

“Being that we need these next three games to move up, I figure we need these next three games to possibly be a top-ten team in the playoffs.”

The game will feature two of the area’s top passing offenses, led by sophomore quarterbacks, LCCP’s Dylen Vital and Westlake’s Brody Anderson.

Vital (91-140-8, 1,548 yards, 12 TDs) had a career day last week with 375 yards and six touchdowns. The Rams’ defense, led by linemen Cooper Cryer, Avan Breaux, Cooper Williams and Jace Hayes, has pressured quarterbacks with 13 sacks and 59 hurries. With enough pressure, Richardson said he hopes to cut off Vital from his top receivers Ayden Carter (39 receptions, 762 yds., 6 TDs) and Alijah Pete (33-482, 4 TDs).

“It’s not like they just have one or two fast guys and you can just kind of focus on them,” Richardson said. “But they have speed everywhere. Everybody out there on the field can make plays for them. So we’re just going to do our best to keep everything in front of us and try to limit big plays.

“And we’re going to have to do a good job of tackling out in space. We’re getting better in the secondary. We’ll definitely need to get some pressure on (Vital) to have any kind of success (tonight) and hope to maybe make (him) make some hurried throws.”

Anderson is completing 61.7 percent of his passes (91-149-4) with 1,435 yards and 15 touchdowns. Like Vital, he has two talented receivers in Kevin Rideau (33-593, 8 TDs) and Ryan Allen (32-643, 7 TDs / 52 carriers, 436 yds., 5 TDs).

“I think with Westlake, they’re talented on the edge with their receivers,” Franklin said. “I think the quarterback does a really good job of not taking sacks and knowing where he’s going to throw the ball on his free snap reads.

“So I think that makes it a little more difficult for you to stop an offense that has a quarterback that’s in tune. So we’re going to come up with a good plan to make sure our guys are in the right place.”

Westlake (5-2, 1-0) is coming off its second one-point loss, 28-27 to Iota.

“The biggest thing for us right now is, I feel like we have to clean up our mistakes,” Richardson said. “We lost two games by a total of two points, and to two good teams. But we had a lot of turnovers and penalties in those games and some misalignments on defense. Those are the kinds of things that we have to fix going forward as we get closer to the playoffs.”