Village Christian football can’t get key stops in loss to Paraclete

GLENDALE — Village Christian could not overcome a slow start in a 42-20 loss to Paraclete on Friday night at Glendale Community College.

Paraclete’s first four touchdowns came after the Crusaders (1-3) failed to stop long conversion attempts on third or fourth down that could have ended those drives.

“We need to understand situational football,” VC coach Richard Broussard said. “It’s stuff we work on every week, but it’s just not translating.”

Dominic Simon jump-started things for Village Christian late in the second quarter. The senior intercepted a pass and returned it 77 yards to set up a first-and-goal. One play later, Everson Mathis scored on a quarterback keeper.

“That definitely helped us,” Broussard said of Simon’s interception return. “It kind of shifted momentum and gave us some life. It was like ‘okay, we can play with these guys.’ We showed that throughout the game we just needed to finish some more drives.”

Village Christian made it a one score game early in the second half. Michael Chase recovered a Paraclete fumble and two plays later Mathis threw a 70-yard touchdown pass to his younger brother, Preston Mathis.

Everson Mathis later added a touchdown pass to senior Evan Gonzalez, but it wasn’t enough to complete a comeback.

Joseph Mesa led the way for Paraclete, throwing six touchdown passes, four of them to Savaughn Gentle.

“We schedule tough games because we’re in a tough league and want to prepare ourselves for that,” Broussard said. “Games like this do that for us.”