CROWLEY Notre Dame junior quarterback Parker Menard wasn't sure if he'd even be able to play in Friday's 41-21 victory over Lake Arthur at Gardiner Memorial Stadium.

Just when it appeared the Pioneers would be as healthy as they've been all season long, Menard endured flu-like symptoms over the weekend and called coach Lewis Cook with a fever of 103.

"I was afraid if I didn't go to practice Tuesday, then I wasn't going to be able to play," Menard said. "So I was actually late to practice because I was throwing up and showed up to practice 10 minutes late because I didn't go to school that day and practiced."

Menard certainly didn't look slowed down at all come Friday night, completing 10 of 12 passes for 199 yards and two touchdowns to help Notre Dame separate in the battle of 7-0 clubs.

"I just needed my coach to have a little bit more confidence in me and throw the ball," Menard said. "We completed like four or five in a row and then I guess he (coach Lewis Cook) kept on going with it because it was working."

As the game rolled on, there were several instances when the Pioneers' offense had the exact number of passing yards as rushing yards. Notre Dame finished with 217 rushing and 199 passing.

"Yeah, that makes you feel good," Cook said. "If you can get balance like that, it definitely helps. It makes it hard to defend."

The football game looked more like a track meet early on.

Lake Arthur showed it wasn't intimidated by the Pioneers by marching 69 yards on nine plays in 3:23 to take the quick 7-0 lead. The Tigers went for it on fourth-and-1 from their own 40 to keep the drive alive, before quarterback Gabe Turner's 28-yard touchdown run.

The Pioneers didn't wait long to utilize the passing game.

On the first offensive play, running back William Lavergne took the snap and rolled left to pitch it to Menard, who had lined up as a wide receiver.

Menard was pressured, but got off a 71-yard touchdown pass to Luke Frank to tie it at 7-all.

"It's always fun to run plays like that, - to kind of give the defenses a different look," Lavergne said. 

"We ran that play against Teurlings but it didn't work," Menard said. "So he (Cook) wanted to try it again, At first, I couldn't see him whenever I got pitched the ball. As soon as he pitched it, he got hit. Then I stepped to my right a little bit and I saw him (Frank) wide open. So I just threw it."

On the next possession, a fumbled snap on a pooch punt attempt by Turner helped Notre Dame set up shop at the Lake Arthur 37 and Lavergne's 35-yard run set up Menard's 1-yard scoring plunge for the 13-7 lead with 6:06 still left in the first quarter.

"Our O-line executed higher than their normal standards tonight," said Lavergne, who finished the game with 59 yards and three touchdowns. "I mean, they really played well. I can't ask for more than the giant holes I was running through. All I had to do was run through them. The O-line was fantastic." 

Unfortunately for the visiting Tigers, they turned the ball over again with a fumble for a 6-yard loss at their own 27. Lavergne followed Braxton Meche's 14-yard run with a 5-yard scoring run for a 20-7 lead with 3:46 left in the first.

Meche finished the night with 90 yards on 12 carries.

Lake Arthur's speedy running back Jaydon Prudhomme reminded everyone how talented he is by breaking loose on a 69-yard touchdown run for the Tigers' own one-play touchdown drive. That cut the Pios' lead to 20-14 with 3:27 left in the first.

"I thought defensively did a did a good job because those guys - 20 (Prudhomme( and 7 (Gabe Turner), they can go," Cook said. "They can play. He (Prudhomme) broke that long one, but I thought we did a pretty good job after that."

Finally, Cook wanted out of the track meet and the Pioneers' offense responded with a 15-play, 83-yard drive in 7:19 to slow the game down.

Completions of 13 yards to Meche and 15 yards to Thomas Andrus preceded Lavergne's 3-yard touchdown run for a 27-14 lead with 7:08 left until halftime.

"Parker did a good job of finding a little space and putting in on the money," Cook said of Menard's passing. 

The Pios got one more touchdown in before the game. A 26-yard completion to Luke Swacker  from Menard set up Lavergne's third touchdown run of the first half for a 34-14 halftime cushion.

Throughout the game, Cook kept throwing curve balls at Lake Arthur's defense - lining up wide receivers and running backs at quarterback to begin the play.

"Yeah, it's probably as much as we've done it in the past," Cook said of the strategy. "We were trying to spread their defense out a little bit. They want to play a 3-3 stack, where they've got three linemen, three linebackers stack behind them. So I figured if we can, we might keep them moving a little bit."

The other big part of the Pios' win was tight end Gabe Smith doubling as a running back. Smith ran three times for 40 yards and caught three passes for 42 yards and a touchdown.

"Gabe did a great job for us," Cook said. "It was great to get those guys back."