Week 4 of the Louisiana high school football season proved to be a bit of a doozy.
The long list of notable and memorable outcomes made for maybe the toughest cuts of date in trimming down a five-game “Statement Wins” list.
While another nearly two dozen victories were certainly worthy of strong consideration, these five rose firmly to the forefront of Louisiana vs. All Y’all’s conversations for the week.
Each one packed a mixture of big messages as teams rebounded from tough Week 3 results, mounted thrilling comebacks, appeared to take strides in establishing their identities, knocked off top-flight competition and notched meaningful wins in playoff (or even district) positioning.
1. WEST MONROE 27, CATHOLIC-BR 24
A week after stumbling to a home loss to Class 4A North DeSoto, the Rebels bounced back with a message to anyone ready to write them off. West Monroe battled Catholic-Baton Rouge, considered by most to be one of the top few teams in the state, in “a four-quarter war” and flexed its muscle in meaningful ways on both sides of the ball: limiting the Bears’ loaded running back rotation to minimal effectiveness on the ground, then pounding out a game-winning eight-minute drive down the stretch to claim its first win in the series in several years.
2. NOTRE DAME 35, CATHOLIC-NI 34
The first of a pair of wild comebacks in the Lafayette area to make this list, Notre Dame trailed by four scores before shutting down reigning Division-III Select champion Catholic-New Iberia and grinding back to upset its former district rival in overtime. The victory put the Pios back on the right side of the matchup after losing in 2024, asserted themselves firmly into the Division-III Select title conversation and provided a boat load of confidence and inspiration to draw upon in the face of any additional adversity.
3. ST. THOMAS MORE 27, NEVILLE 23
The Cougars didn’t trail by four scores like Notre Dame or even the three scores by which they had trailed in Week 3, but for the second straight week they showed their ability to play as well as any team in the state in stretches — and a continued blueprint and confidence on their ceiling if they can put that performance together for a full four quarters. St. Thomas More caught fire to recover from a 16-point deficit to Neville, considered one of the state’s top Class 5A teams, and continue its early-season turnaround overall from 0-2 to now 2-2 with growing momentum.
4. EVANGEL CHRISTIAN 51, AIRLINE 49
The highly anticipated early-district showdown did not disappoint as a trademark back-and-forth District 1-5A shootout. And when the dust settled, Evangel Christian had its biggest win of the season thus far and arguably even since before the COVID-19 pandemic. The Eagles handed Airline, latest year’s league champion, just its second regular-season loss in the past three calendar years and are now one of three unbeaten teams in this year’s race — with home-field advantage against both Captain Shreve and Parkway in weeks 6 and 10, respectively.
5. ARCHBISHOP SHAW 31, LAFAYETTE CHRISTIAN 13
The Eagles won last year’s matchup on the road, but a new-look group after graduating a legendary 2025 class was still trying to find its way early in this season. Meanwhile Lafayette Christian has proven its early as not only a top Division-III contender — if not the team to beat — but a team capable of knocking off one higher-classification foe after another. Archbishop Shaw’s rebound from a loss to even its record to 2-2 against an opponent of that caliber could be a nice spark at this point in the schedule.
