Mission Accomplished: Edna Karr Cougars Prove They’re Louisiana’s Elite with 53-8 Win
by: Mike Strom // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
NEW ORLEANS – The goal and motto of the Karr Cougars this football season was to “reclaim.’’
As in reclaim in their eyes their rightful position not just among Louisiana schoolboy football elites, but as the elite program.
Mission accomplished.
Exploding from the starting blocks with a fury uncommon in most state finals, the Cougars left no doubt as to who was the superior force in a battle of unbeaten by bolting to a virtually insurmountable first-half lead and then basically coasting to a 53-8 demolition of Alexandria Senior High Saturday in the Division I Select championship game played in the 44th annual Allstate Sugar Bowl LHSAA Prep Classic at the Caesars Superdome.
Top-seeded Karr’s victory against No. 2 ASH earned the Cougars their fifth state title in the last nine seasons under Coach Brice Brown, but first since winning four consecutive Class 4A crowns from 2016 through 2019. The Cougars actuallymade five consecutive state finals appearances counting a Class 4A runner-up finish in 2020.
Karr (13-0) additionally captured its first state crown as a member of Class 5A, the state’s highest classification in addition to claiming the seventh overall state championship by the renowned Algiers program located on the West Bank of New Orleans.
“The team motto this year was ‘reclaim,’’’ Brown said. “What are we trying to reclaim? We are trying to reclaim a sense of our identity, not just reclaim a state championship. Reclaim the sense that we are the best team in the state of Louisiana. Reclaim that we are the best high school in the state of Louisiana. We have the best character. We have the best students. We have the best teachers. We have the best principal. We have the best trainers. That’s what we’re trying to reclaim.
“Because when you are charged with leading a program with such a great magnitude as Edna Karr, the expectation is real.The expectation is to win. But how do you do it, though? That matters. It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it.’’
So dominant was the performance of the three-time reigning District 9-5A Catholic League champions that the final 10 minutes, 42 seconds were played as running time, per Louisiana High School Athletic Association rules that requires game officials to run the clock once one side gains a 42-point advantage.
In Karr’s case, that moment arrived when junior quarterback John Johnson III ran 18 yards for his third touchdown and Brayon Castellon kicked his seventh successful PAT in as many attempts to put the Cougars ahead by the final margin of 53-8.
“That was our first goal of the week to have a running clock in the state championship game,’’ Brown said. “It didn’t have anything to do with ASH. It had everything to do with us.’’
Led by a suffocating defense and their stellar quarterback, Karr’s players complied in downing the Trojans from central Louisiana for a second consecutive season in the playoffs. The Cougars downed the Trojans, 40-34, in last year’s Division I Select state quarterfinals in a battle that wasn’t decided until Karr recovered an onside kickoff in the closing moments.
Much of the drama from the rematch was removed, though, during the first two minutes when LSU-committed junior safety Aiden Hall returned an interception 32 yards for a touchdown on the second snap from scrimmage and Johnson and wide receiver TaRon Francis teamed up on a 46-yard scoring pass on Karr’s second scrimmage play following a three-and-out by the Cougars defense.
Johnson would go on to account for 358 of his team’s 512 yards and five of the offense’s six touchdowns with his running and passing while earning Karr’s Outstanding Player player honors from a vote of the attending media.
The 5-foot-10, 170-pound Johnson rushed 19 times for a game-high 161 yards with touchdowns of 5, 1 and the aforementioned 18 yards in addition to completing 10 of 17 passes for another 197 yards with two scoring passes to the LSU-signed Francis covering 46 and 22 yards.
So daunting was Johnson’s performance that it made the four first-half interceptions ASH recorded off him seem inconsequential except for the obvious effect of lessening the scoring margin between the teams.
“I think that John’s best attribute is his poise,’’ Brown said. “His cool and collectively calm. When you’re playing quarterback at Karr, every eye is on you, every camera is on you. Every person has an opinion, but the only thing that matters is the preparation which leads to performance which leads to outcome.
“John does a great job of keeping that in order. He is in the staff meeting with the offensive staff. The offensive staff probably met about 15 hours this week and he’s in there, taking notes and getting those corrections.
“You talk about the four interceptions, but it just shows the trust he has in his wideouts. That trust was evident in the second half when he just dropped back and threw a dart to TaRon for the skinny post for the (22-yard) touchdown. That shows how poised and mature he is for a junior quarterback. We’re lucky to have him again for next year.’’
“I give myself a six out of 10,’’ Johnson said when asked to rate his performance. “I stay hard on myself. I know my team has got my back. My (offensive line) stepped up and my receivers. They always had my back. And we worked for this one.’’
Karr rushed for 315 yards and four touchdowns, averaging 7.9 yards a carry, with senior running back Bryant Sanchez contributing 111 yards via 15 carries that included a 1-yard touchdown run for the first of two third-quarter scores by the Cougars.
Alexandria (13-1) sustained an unexpected humbling after establishing its program as north and central Louisiana’s finest in season No. 10 under Coach Thomas Bachman.
The undefeated District 2-5A champions, coming from a league that featured reigning Division I Non-Select state champion Ruston and highly-regarded Neville, managed only 194 yards of offense and 13 first downs compared to Karr’s totals of 24 firsts and 512 yards.
Senior running back J.T. Lindsey earned ASH’s Outstanding Player honors after rushing for 115 yards on 22 carries, but the LSU signee was shut out of the end zone after rushing for 33 touchdowns in his first 13 games.
Lindsey entered averaging 181.7 rushing yards via 302 carries that produced 2,361 yards. The Trojans senior finished his senior season with 2,476 rushing yards on 332 carries with 33 rushing touchdowns and 36 overall.
“Obviously, we’re incredibly disappointed for our boys in today’s performance,’’ Bachman said. “It’s a hard thing right here when you’re just coming off the field to put (the season) in perspective. People ask you all week and all year to kind of reflect on what these kids have accomplished. That’s a challenging thing.
“It’s hard not to focus on the here and now and what took place on that field. But I could not be prouder as a coach and a man to sit here with this group of young men and make it back over to that locker room and spend some time with (our) kids.
“It’s taken a lot of to get to the point. It’s meant a lot. Those kids are incredible, that’s the thing. They have worked their tail off. No matter what anybody told them, they kept going forward. I’m proud of them.’’
Karr’s Brown, too, was overcome by pride in his players as evidenced by his post-game rhetoric.
“I want to thank God for this opportunity because being blessed to have such great coaches and great players it really puts things in perspective,’’ Brown said. “Especially when you’re looked at as the public school that people think their perception is we have players from Texas and Arkansas and Mississippi.
“I can tell you one thing, these guys are homegrown from New Orleans, Louisiana, and I think that makes it even better that our homegrown talent can pick a high school like Edna Karr High School which exemplifies not only great athletics but great academics. I just can’t say how proud of these guys I am because they weathered through this storm.
“What is the storm? The storm is every naysayer and every person who thinks that you’re one thing, but you really show it each and every single day that you’re really something else. What is it that you show you are? You are a student-athlete. You are a great person. You are an exceptional player. You’re a phenomenal kid.
“Let’s not forget that these are kids. Half of these guys have another year, half of them are going to college. Some of them are going (to college) in January in a couple of weeks. It cannot be said enough how much stress and how much pressure these guys can take and handle playing at a school like Edna Karr High School.
“I just want to say publicly to them that I’m just so proud I am of them that they chose to listen instead of pretending to listen. I’m just so happy and blessed to be around such phenomenal people. Not just great players, they are phenomenal people.’’
The phenomenal Cougars took only two plays to score and it was Karr’s defense that did the honors when safety Aiden Hall stepped in front of a Karsen Sellers’ pass to the right sidelines and returned the interception 32 yards for the opening touchdown. Castellon then kicked the first of 4 successful first-half PATs kicks good for a 7-0 advantage 33 seconds into the game.
The Cougars quickly upped the ante to 21-0 when Johnson directed scoring drives of 46 and 58 yards en route to establishing a commanding 32-8 advantage at intermission.
Johnson hit Francis for the first offensive touchdown, a 46-yard go route up the right sidelines in which Johnson pump-faked to another target at the line of scrimmage and then found the streaking Francis.
Johnson ran 5 yards to cap the 58-yard possession that took just 6 plays. Johnson ran 12, 10, and 20 yards on the first three snaps, then completed a short pass for 3 yards that Johnson followed two plays later with the scoring run off the right side good for a 21-0 lead.
Karr’s defense then stepped in to record consecutive safeties and increase the cushion to 25-0. On the first safety, Lindsey ran into a wall of defenders in the end zone on a toss play to the right side that produced a 3-yard loss. ASH quarterback Karsen Sellers then was sacked for minus 7 yards by defensive end Lyric Hawkins one possession later for the second safety.
Johnson next ran 1 yard to culminate a 5-play, 77-yard possession that increased the cushion to 32-0 with five minutes, 38 seconds remaining till halftime.
ASH finally got on the scoreboard with 3:47 remaining in the opening half when reserve quarterback Max Gassiot directed an 8-play, 68-yard drive that culminated with his 5-yard run and two-point conversion pass to wide receiver Alex Fontenot.
“We played a lot of good people,’’ ASH’s Bachman said of his team’s 13-0 start. “Today’s performance, it’s a credit to (Karr), too. I’m not going to take anything away from them and how good of a football team they are and the job that Coach Brown does. That’s a great collection of talent that’s well-coached and disciplined.
“We played a lot of really good people and it’s a big accomplishment to make it to this point. But we weren’t trying to make it here. That was not the goal. We’re going to keep chasing it until we get one of these (championships).
“I don’t know how to put it in perspective, to be honest with you. We’re just going to keep our head down and keep working. This group here has set the bar really high for what can be accomplished.’’
Karr’s only real downside in the first half was Johnson being intercepted four times while accounting for 218 of the Cougars’ 270 yards of offense. But the hiccups barely were felt as Johnson completed 8 of 12 for 129 yards with the 46-yard score to Francis in addition to rushing for 89 yards and the touchdown runs of 5 and 1 yards.
ASH, meanwhile, was limited to 43 second-half yards after 145 yards and 7 first downs in the opening two periods. Defensive back Jaquarian Frazier recorded two of the Trojans’ four interceptions off of Johnson while safety Jaden Lewis and defensive back Jaytun Terry accounted for the two others.
“I think all week (defensive coordinator) Taurus Howard in staff meetings talked about stopping the best player,’’ Brown said. “We can’t let the best player on the opposing team beat us. We keyed in on him. There were some keys and things that showed us some telltale signs, but the No. 1 thing was that all of those guys bought into the game plan.
“When you have kids who (play like this) in the midst of LEAP testing, in the midst of signing day, in the midst ofpreparing for a state championship, it speaks of the character of the person. When you have a great defensive staff and great defensive players, it equals to allowing 8 points in a state championship game and a running clock.’’
Linebacker Kevin Martin recorded a team-leading 8 tackles with 1.5 tackles for losses for the Cougars while junior defensive tackle Richard Anderson, another LSU commitment, had 7 tackles with 6 tackles for losses and 1 sack. Linebackers Tyrik Brigalia and Arsenio Bolds each recorded 6 tackles.
“These guys are great players,’’ Brown said of his defense. “The plan was simple. Let them pin their ears back and let them go tackle one of the best players in the stadium in the running back from ASH. These (Karr) guys are just as good. They’re up here (being interviewed) for a reason. They’re up here because they bought into a plan and they bought into a purpose which was to represent their school to the best of their ability.’’
The Cougars kept their foot on the gas pedal until the final closing seconds, playing their offensive starters throughout with Johnson directing a 61-yard drive to ASH’s 1-yard line in the closing 5 minutes. Johnson nearly scored his fourth touchdown on a 5-yard run to the goal line before kneeling on the ensuing final play to keep Karr’s score from reaching 60.
“(To) finish,’’ Brown said unapologetically when asked about keeping his first-team offense in to the end. “Every stone has to be turned. We have 11 guys. They have 11 guys. Our job is to not let (the opposing) offense back on the field. Their job is to stop us.’’
Nothing and no one apparently was going to stop this Karr team on its mission.
“You saw the discipline of the team …,’’ Brown continued. “That’s what you’re reclaiming, a sense of purpose, a sense of identity, that a school that is predominantly African-American can be disciplined, can do their job on a consistent basis. That’s what we’re trying to reclaim. And I think we did it.’’
“We expected to run the clock in the state championship,’’ Brown reiterated. “I don’t want to sound arrogant or cocky, but that’s the expectation. Let’s let the cat out of the bag. Anything less than where we are today would have been unsatisfactory. Not just because of the talent we have, but because of the preparation. The preparation and the performance matched today.
“And that’s the best thing about this group, is they prepare so hard and we are on them hard now. It’s not like they’re walking around doing the second line in the hallway. So the preparation and the performance matched and anytime you can get that, you get a state championship team.’’
KARR 53, ALEXANDRIA 8
Alexandria 0 8 0 0 — 8
Karr 21 11 14 7 — 53
ASH KAR
First downs 13 24
Rushing 128 315
Passing 60 197
Total offense 188 512
Passes 7-21-1 10-17-4
Punts 6-33.2 1-48.0
Fumbles/lost 2-0 0-0
Penalties 4-24 6-60
SCORING:
K: Aiden Hall 32 interception return (Brayon Castellon kick).
K: TaRon Francis 46 pass from John Johnson III (Brayon Castellon kick).
K: John Johnson III 5 run (Brayon Castellon kick).
K: J.T. Lindsey of Alexandria tackled in the end zone for minus 3 yards and a Karr safety.
K: Karsen Sellers sacked in end zone for minus 7 yards and a Karr safety.
K: John Johnson III 1 run (Brayon Castellon kick).
A: Max Gassiot 5 run (Alex Fontenot pass from Max Gassiot).
K: Bryant Sanchez 1 run (Brayon Castellon kick).
K: TaRon Francis 22 pass from John Johnson III (Brayon Castellon kick).
K: John Johnson III 18 run (Brayon Castellon kick).