Pope John Paul II heads to Baton Rouge tonight in search of a bi-district round playoff victory against No. 14 Episcopal of Baton Rouge.

Pope John Paul (5-4, 2-2), the 19th seed, is coming off a 35-7 loss to a good St. Thomas Aquinas squad that went undefeated in the regular season. In fact, PJP held the Falcons to their lowest scoring output of the season.

PJP coach Mark Jeanmard said his team is being rewarded for doing well in the regular season.

Pope John Paul II defenders Brad Alfonso (58), Joel Price (56) and Calvin Durel (89) attempt to corral St. Thomas Aquinas ball carrier during last week'€™s game at PJP. (File Photo by James Elorriaga)

“It’s an exciting time,” Jeanmard said. “The kids are excited. I told them after we lost on Friday that I was proud of them. It represents that they worked for the entire season to improve things.”

Episcopal coach Travis Bourgeois said PJP’s setbacks have come against some good squads.

“They’ve got four losses, but to four quality teams,” Bourgeois said. “They don’t do anything to hurt themselves. You’re going to have to show up because they’re not going to give it to you. They look like a playoff team.”

The victor of this game plays against the winner of third seeded St. James and 30th seeded Fisher.

The Jaguars run the veer offense with Nathan Hewitt playing quarterback. Last week, Hewitt hit on 8-of-15 for 96 yards and a touchdown to wide receiver Tommy Gritten.

The feature back is senior Ross Macaluso. Last week, he had a productive game, running 15 times for 91 yards.

The Jaguars will be facing a defense that bases out of the 4-4. Bourgeois said his best defenders come from his senior linebacking corps. The inside linebackers are Joseph Howe and Taylor Crockett, who each have 40 solo tackles to lead the team. The outside linebackers are William White and Kyle Evers.

The Knights offense is mostly the Wing-T, but they will use some spread out of the shotgun.

Senior Trey Maughan is the quarterback. This season, he has thrown for 650 yards, eight touchdowns and four interceptions.

The three running backs are Tommy Richey, Jared Rogers and Randon Fields-Green. Bourgeois said Richey is a power runner. He has run for 690 yards and three scores this season. Rogers, more of a speed back, has chewed up 610 yards with eight touchdowns, while Fields-Green’s rushing yards are 450 to go with six TDs. As a team Episcopal has run for 2,059 yards and 21 scores.

This season, the Jaguars have leaned on their defense. The scheme by PJP is designed to confuse the quarterback by bringing people from different areas on the field.

The leader in the defensive backfield is Jacob Palmisano, who has six interceptions this year.

Jeanmard credited Bobby Mayfield, Cory Davis and Tyler Lusignan for playing well last week.