Varnado’s Wildcats trailed by just 15 points at halftime, but St. Helena College and Career Academy took advantage of some of the home team’s mistakes to break the game open late, as the Hawks took a 39-0 win in Varnado on Friday night.

The start of the game was delayed a little more than an hour due to rain and lightning.

St. Helena’s Corey Leblanc scored on a 3-yard touchdown with 4:45 left in the first quarter, and Matthew Claiborne added the extra point. The Hawks added another touchdown with 3:08 left in the second quarter when Deshon Singleton passed to Myron Smith for a 30-yard score. Claiborne added the two-point conversion run and the Hawks took a 15-0 lead into the locker room at halftime.

Varnado’s offense had difficulty sustaining drives in the first half, as the Wildcats picked up just one first down and punted at the end of all six of their possessions.

Mistakes by the Wildcats led to St. Helena’s first touchdown of the second half.

A bad snap on first down eventually led Varnado to facing a third-and-46 from its own 17-yard-line, when the Wildcats had a second high snap. St. Helena recovered the loose ball at the Varnado 5, and scored three plays later on a 1-yard run by Claiborne. Claiborne added the two-point conversion to put his team ahead 23-0.

St. Helena added two more touchdowns in the third quarter. Leblanc had a 58-yard touchdown run with 5:37 left, and Claiborne completed a 53-yard touchdown pass to Tyler Wilson with 1:54 remaining. Claiborne added both two-point conversions on runs, and the Hawks broke their lead open to 39-0.

Varnado fell to 0-3, while St. Helena improved to 2-1. The Wildcats will host North Vermillion on Friday.