West Monroe found a way when it mattered most.
The Rebels (3-1) leaned on Christian Ponti late in a Class 5A heavyweight showdown with Catholic-Baton Rouge (3-1), orchestrating an 85-yard, clock-chewing march that lasted nearly eight minutes before Brady Guillot’s go-ahead pass to Sam Turner lifted the home team to the 27-24 victory.
The game winner was a 6-yard touchdown reception between the junior quarterback and senior tight end. But the assist would be credited to Ponti, the powerful senior running back, and the Rebels’ tough offensive line.
“Pound the rock!” said West Monroe senior guard Tylan George, a Tulane commitment. “We came with bad intentions and wanted to shove it down their throat, and we did.”
With Catholic clinging to a 21-20 lead and the chance to slam the door, a botched snap at the 3-yard line sent the Bears backward, forced them to settle for a field goal and gifted West Monroe some new life.
And the Rebels took full advantage to earn a win that carried some tangible emotional weight — following a tough loss to North DeSoto last week on the same field — and notable implications in eventual playoff seeding in November.
“Man, that’s incredible for us,” said Ponti, who carried 26 times for 144 yards and two scores. “We had a great feeling coming into it, and we knew it’d be a big step for us. Going to 2–2 would not help us at all, so we knew if we put the world against us and we carried this team to a win, it’d be a huge step for us.”
Defenses owned the opening stretch, including an Ian Locklar interception, before Catholic finally broke through on the first snap of the second with a Baylor Graves 10-yard keeper.
The Rebels would answer with Ponti’s first rushing touchdown of the night to level it before Turner Goldsmith hit Jude Chamberlain on a sideline strike that led to a 32-yard touchdown and nudged the Bears back in front 14-7.
The lead didn’t last. On the ensuing kickoff, Kedrian McNeil hit the gas for a 95‑yard return to knot it 14‑14 and flip the momentum going into the break.
Coming out of the halftime break, Ponti’s second rushing TD gave the Rebels their first lead, but a missed extra point would hold it at 20-14 midway through the third — only for Goldsmith to land another haymaker with a 56‑yard shot to Dyer Chambers that swung the edge back to Catholic at 21‑20 before the late-game excitement.
One week removed from a missed-tackle nightmare, West Monroe’s defense tightened down and held Catholic and its loaded stable of running backs to just 88 rushing yards.
In the immediate aftermath, coach DeMichael Dizer called the upset a “four-quarter war.”
