Practicing on Thanksgiving week and playing a quarterfinal that Friday is always a special achievement for any Louisiana high school football team able to do so.
Only 64 programs survive to enjoy that opportunity each season as the playoff field begins swiftly thinning.
As always, Louisiana vs. All Y’all likes to take the weekly opportunity to spotlight a handful of the biggest message-sending performances around the state.
And the second-round action certainly provided plenty of notable outcomes in that regard.
But, more than ever, each win as November continues and eventually turns to December, carries plenty of significance — whether it’s the big eye-catcher on a statewide level yet or not.
All that said, here’s a look at our latest five “Statement Wins” for the second round.
1. BARBE 42, WEST MONROE 35
The Buccaneers — and, in many ways, the Lake Charles area — haven’t factored as heavily into the statewide landscape in recently years as they previously had. Barbe hadn’t won a playoff game since a 2017 quarterfinal run and had missed the postseason entirely three times in that span. The Bucs have now gone north back-to-back weeks to open the playoffs with upsets of top-10 opponents, including Friday’s against West Monroe out of a highly regarded District 2-5A. Also notably, the Rebels had been the quarterfinal opponent to end Barbe’s 2017 postseason run.
2. OUACHITA CHRISTIAN 38, SOUTHERN LAB 0
OCS closed the regular season on a down note with a 34-21 loss at Oak Grove in Week 10 and, after a week to think about, was set to open the playoffs with a a familiar matchup that historically as more often been a hard-fought quarterfinal or semifinal battle. The Eagles responded in dominant fashion, though, routing and shutting out the Kittens in one of the most lopsided results of the week anywhere in the state.
3. OUACHITA PARISH 21, DESTREHAN 19
The Lions could have had their confidence shaken by four straight District 2-5A losses, mostly in heartbreaking fashion. Instead, they handled the adversity well behind coach Benjy Lewis, his staff and a strong senior class and learned the lessons and improved the areas necessary to advance to the program’s first quarterfinal appearance since 2021 by taking a long road trip south and upsetting a perennial power and the No. 3 seed in the bracket, keeping Destrehan from the quarterfinals for the first time since 2017.
4. UNION PARISH 14, ERATH 9
This season was as down as they come for the Farmers in terms of wins, losses and playoff seeding. But Union Parish provided the state a very clear reminder it is still in the Division-III Non-Select mix in 2025 and not to be overlooked. The Farmers’ five losses marked their most in a regular season since 2016. Only one of their five wins came against an opponent to finish the regular season with a winning record. Their margin against seven playoff teams was 109-263. And their No. 12 seed is their lowest since 2019. But Union Parish went south and upset one of the state’s 10 previously undefeated teams and, with a pair of playoffs wins under its belt, is back in the quarterfinals for the eighth straight year.
5. CATHOLIC-NEW IBERIA 41, BUNKIE 13
Catholic-New Iberia provided another of the weekend’s not-so-gentle reminders with a road rout of a solid Bunkie squad that was 22-2 the past two years, including a 2024 semifinal run. Catholic was one of three reigning champions to not receive an opening-round bye and to have already had to take and early-playoff road trip. But it has now won their two postseason games by a combined 93-13 margin and handed Bunkie its worst loss since September 2022.