Ascension Catholic’s defense smothered South Plaquemines' offense all night, but it took the Bulldogs offense a little while to get rolling.

When the offensive execution started to click in the second quarter, the two units combined forces to dominate the Hurricanes 42-0 in a District 10-1A battle Friday night at Floyd Boutte Memorial Stadium in Donaldsonville.

The defense intercepted three passes, forced three fumbles, and stopped South Plaquemines (4-4, 1-2) on downs four times. After a slow start, the offense racked up 410 yards, 237 of which were on the ground.

Ascension Catholic (8-1, 3-1) forced four turnovers in the first half, and after a scoreless first quarter the offense finally took advantage of two of those takeaways in the second quarter to give the Bulldogs a 14-0 lead at halftime.

“Early on in the game, we shot ourselves in the foot up front offensively,” Ascension Catholic coach Taylor James said. “We got a couple of looks that we liked, but we didn’t execute, be it on the line busting a blocking scheme or at running back, bouncing too early or cutting too early.”

On the first drive of the second quarter, Ascension Catholic recovered a Raymontae Jackson fumble at the Hurricanes 21. Two plays later, Braeden Landry scored from 5 yards out to put the Bulldogs up 7-0.

Landry rushed for 65 yards in the second quarter after being held to 11 yards in the first quarter. He finished the night with 115 yards on 30 carries and three touchdowns.

Following a South Plaquemines turnover on downs on the next drive, Ascension Catholic put together a 12-play, 52-yard drive that included a conversion on fourth-and-6. Quarterback Greg Fernandez finished the drive with a 8-yard touchdown run up the middle with 1:55 to go in the half for the two-score lead.

“You can’t win, let alone be competitive, against a good team like Ascension Catholic when you have four turnovers in the first half,” South Plaquemines coach Lyle Fitte said. “Then, we put ourselves in a bind and had to try to scrape back offensively and got out of our game plan and we let everything snowball.”

The Bulldogs squelched any hopes of a South Plaquemines comeback early in the third quarter.

On the first possession of the half, the Ascension Catholic defense forced two negative rushing plays and an incomplete pass.

Following a 30-yard punt, the Bulldogs took over at the Hurricanes 49 and the offense put Landry to work.

The bruising running back carried on six of the next seven plays, the final being a 2-yard touchdown run that put Ascension Catholic up 21-0 four minutes into the third quarter.

Ascension Catholic added three touchdowns in the fourth quarter to seal the outcome.

James said he was impressed with his team’s 48-minute dominance.

“Our defensive line played with a lot of aggression and at a high speed and high level that was really hard for (South Plaquemines) to keep up with,” he said.

“We gave up a couple of big plays, but we were fortunate enough to get them on the ground and we responded by not letting them score. I was very proud of that.”