With his team leading by three points and his starting quarterback out for the second half, St. Charles Catholic football coach Wayne Stein turned to his senior running back Evan Duffour with one message.
“I’m not giving it to anybody else,” Stein told his 5-foot-8, 180-pound leading rusher.
Duffour willingly accepted the challenge.
“He said that was fine,” Stein said. “So, he just kind of put us on his back and played at a very high, high level.”
Duffour enjoyed one of the best nights of his career, accounting for 261 of his 302 total yards on the ground, where he also scored five of his six touchdowns to help Class 3A’s top-ranked team to a 48-24 victory over No. 6 Lutcher.
The victory extended the winning streak of the Comets (8-1, 4-0) to six games and gave them a share of the District 9-3A championship. They travel to Vandebilt Catholic at 7 p.m. Friday looking to finish district play undefeated and claim the outright title.
Duffour carried 34 times and averaged 7.6 yards per carry. He was also an effective weapon in the passing game, catching four passes for 41 yards, including a highlight-reel 30-yard catch and score to polish off his resume for this week’s LouisianaSports.net Player of the Week.
“He’s been that way all season,” Stein said. “From the opening game he’s dominated. We’re a run-first offensively. Everybody knows that he’s getting the ball. He averages 25 to 35 touches a game. What you saw Friday is really what he’s done all year.”
St. Charles took a 13-10 lead into the locker room and later learned that senior quarterback Landree LeBlanc would not be available to play because of a “stinger.”
Duffour had climbed the ladder on St. Charles’ depth chart, beginning at fullback in eighth grade. He switched to tailback for two years, added some weight and worked on his speed, and had a starting role on last year’s Division II select state championship team.
Although Skyler Edwards was the team’s main running threat in ’25, Duffour gained experience, preparing for his day in the sun.
“He didn’t have that burst, that get away (speed) and not get caught,” Stein said. “He went to work and now in my opinion he’s a complete back. He’s got the power to run you over, the wiggle to make you miss and he’s got the speed to not get caught.”
Duffour, who also returns kickoffs, showed off those attributes when he took a swing pass and stiff-armed a tackler near the line of scrimmage. He then reached the sideline, knifed his way between two more tacklers and shook off one more approaching the goal line to finish the 30-yard score.
“It begins and ends with him,” Stein said. “We pride ourselves on strength and toughness. Those are the things that gets our group excited. To watch him run through two facemasks and break a multitude of tackles fired up our kids. He may even be a better blocker than a ball carrier. He’s really an excellent teammate. He’s everything you look for in a young man.”
The fourth quarter simply belonged to St. Charles and Duffour.
Freshman Caleb Alexander touched off a 38-point second half with a 60-yard touchdown on a jet sweep and Duffour followed with a 5-yard score that made it 27-10.
He added a pair of 1-yard plunges and showed off power and speed on a carry up the middle, bouncing off a tackler before speeding the remainder of the way for a 34-yard touchdown.
“We told the kids that Landree was out,” Stein said. “We felt it was out of an abundance of caution that we held Landree out and he’s fine for this week. Everybody knows we’re going to run it; we’re going have to block it better than we’ve blocked, and we’re going to have to play good defense and I thought everybody kind of picked up the slack.
“Evan’s a great teammate,” Stein said. “We’d limited his carries a couple of weeks ago to less than 10 a game, so he could carry the load in games like this.”
