Northshore hosts the St. Thomas More Cougars of Lafayette in a bi-district playoff game at 7 tonight.

Northshore (7-2, 4-2), the 16th seed, finished the regular season tied with St. Paul’s for second in District 6-5A. During the regular season, the Panthers were a perfect 5-0 when playing at home. Northshore is coming off a hard fought, 29-26, victory over Slidell.

St. Thomas More (7-3), the 17th seed, went 2-2 in District 3-5A and finished third.

Northshore's Andrew Coss̩ makes a catch along the sideline during last Friday night'۪s contest against Slidell. (File Photo by James Elorriaga)

Panthers’ coach Mike Bourg said his team cannot have the turnovers it had last week. Against Slidell, Northshore gave the ball away four times in the first half with three lost fumbles and an interception.

“We gotta take care of the ball better than we did Friday night,” Bourg said. “Compared to last year, we’ve taken care of the ball better. You can’t do that against Slidell and expect to win. We just did a good job of fighting back.”

Northshore runs the spread and is led by junior quarterback Jervious Epherson. Last week, he threw for 327 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winner to Chris Ruiz, who starts at linebacker.

Epherson’s favorite receiver the last two weeks has been senior Andrew Cossé, who has caught 15 passes for 268 yards. Last week, Cossé had a breakout game with nine receptions for 216 yards. He had long catches of 71, 40 and 35 yards. His 35-yarder set up their final TD.

Also having a big game for Northshore was junior Adam Chopin, who caught four passes for 67 yards and a 23-yard touchdown.

The running back is senior Channing Wise, who had 81 yards rushing, including a 24-yard touchdown run against Slidell. This season, he has gone for 1,084 yards and 10 scores.

They will be facing a St. Thomas More defense that bases out of the 4-2-5. Coach Jim Hightower said defensive backs Austin Aucoin, Nick LaBrum and Cooper Gerami have played the best for the unit.

Offensively, Emile Joseph is the quarterback. This season he has completed 56 percent of his passes for 1,150 and eight touchdowns.

His main receiver is Jordan Jones, who has 480 receiving yards and five touchdowns. The running back is Andre Ozene. He has run for 900 yards and five scores.

Defensively, NHS bases out of a 4-3. Last week, the unit produced two interceptions. Jimmy Wentworth and Chris Wade each picked a pass. Wade’s interception followed a fumble and led the game’s opening touchdown.