St. Thomas More senior wide receiver Philip Fremin caught three long touchdown passes Friday to help his team to a 34-12 victory over homestanding Northshore in the bi-district round of the Class 5A football playoffs.

Northshore ends the season with a 7-3 record. St. Thomas More (8-3), the 17th seed, advances to the regional round and hosts West Monroe.

Fremin had four catches for 133 yards in the game. His scoring receptions covered 50, 46 and 36 yards.

Northshore'€™s Jervious Epherson (10) tries to escape the tackle of a St. Thomas More player during Friday'€™s bi-district round game at NHS. (Photo by James Elorriaga)

“We had a play where they were man-to-man and I was in the slot. They isolated me, and it just worked out,” Fremin said.

Northshore started the game with the ball, and on the opening drive, the Panthers drove from their 20 to St. Thomas More’s 20. A quick pass from quarterback Jervious Epherson to Adam Chopin accounted for 46 yards and got the ball to the 20.

But Northshore squandered the scoring opportunity on the next play with a fumble that St. Thomas More’s Ashton Eversberg recovered.

The Cougars sscored first. On the fourth play of their second possession, quarterback Emile Joseph hooked up with Fremin, who broke a tackle at the 10 and scored a 50-yard TD. Tyler Listi was good with the PAT, making it 7-0 with 3:59 left.

The Panthers got cut into the lead during the second quarter when Epherson, who threw for 257 yards in the game, hit Archie Ambo across the middle with a 70-yard scoring strike. The PAT was blocked, and the Cougars led 7-6 with 8:30 to go in the first half.

On the ensuing possession, Joseph and Fremin connected once again, this time for 46 yards up the left sideline. Listi was good on the PAT, and St. Thomas More extended its lead to 14-6 with 6:30 left in the half.

The Cougars added a field goal from Listi with 55 seconds left in the first half and took a 17-6 advantage into the break.

St. Thomas More blew the game open on its second possession of the third quarter. The Cougars reached into their bag of tricks and called a halfback pass. Jesse St. Julien made it work with a perfect throw to Fremin for 36 yards. After Listi’s extra point, the Cougars led 24-6 with 5:36 left in the third.

The Panthers never quit. On its next drive, Northshore got a 1-yard touchdown from Channing Wise, which was set up by a 58-yard rush from Ambo that brought the ball to the nine. Epherson had a 3-yard run on first down, then the Panthers lost 2 yards on a pass before Epherson scrambled for 7 yards. Wise scored on fourth-and-goal.

The two-point conversion was no good, leaving the tally at 24-12 with 2:47 left in the third quarter.

The Cougars got another field goal from Listi in the fourth quarter and scored a touchdown late on a 90-yard interception return by Cooper Gerami.

Ambo, a senior, finished with two carries for 69 yards and four catches for 87 yards. Junior Adam Chopin had four catches for 79 yards.

Senior Andrew Cossé, who was the Panthers hottest receiver the last three games, caught six passes for 73 yards. In the final three contests of his high-school career, Cossé had 21 receptions for 341 yards.

Cossé said it was a good season, but the team came up short.