ALEXANDRIA — Thomas Bachman doesn’t believe in sending messages to his team’s opponents.
But the Alexandria Senior High Trojans delivered one anyway on Friday night.
ASH dominated West Monroe from start to finish, as senior Karsen Sellers (Lamar) passed for three touchdowns and rushed for a fourth, while junior Kason Williams added two more on the ground en route to a 44-7 victory as they opened District 2-5A with a dominating showing and remained on a Week 8 collision course with Ruston.
The Trojans (5-1, 1-0), ranked sixth in the LSWA’s Class 5A poll, rushed and passed for more than 200 yards, rolling up 464 yards of offense in the game. They led 30-0 at the half and cruised to an easy victory, limiting West Monroe to just 79 yards of offense in the first half.
The Trojans’ defense set the tone early, forcing West Monroe to go three-and-out on four of its first five possessions and allowing just four first downs in the first half.
Despite “playing really well” on defense and turning in a “pretty dominant” showing, Alexandria coach Thomas Bachman said he would like to see better offensive execution from the Trojans early in the game. They led just 9-0 after the first quarter before finding their groove in the second quarter.
“I thought we had an opportunity to really knock ‘em out and get ‘em behind multiple possessions there early in the game,” Bachman said.
Alexandria broke open the game in the second quarter behind Sellers’ touchdown passes to seniors Alex Fontenot (Maryland) and Reginald “Donut” Monroe. Fontenot caught a pass along the sideline, slipped a tackle and raced 44 yards into the end zone, while Monroe took a screen pass and weaved his way through several Rebel defenders for a 39-yard score.
The Trojans made it three touchdowns on their final three possessions of the half after sophomore Jayden Minor intercepted West Monroe junior quarterback Tre King and returned it to the 1-yard line, setting up Williams’ second TD of the half as a nine-point Trojan lead quickly ballooned to 30.
Fontenot caught seven passes for 141 yards and two scores. His 27-yard TD early in the fourth quarter, following a muffed punt that was recovered by junior Raymond Harris III, not only gave the Trojans their 44-7 final margin but also broke the school record for career touchdown receptions.
Fontenot now has 31 career TD receptions and is within striking distance of breaking the school record for career receiving yards. He has over 120 career receptions for more than 2,000 yards. He’s on pace to become the first Trojan receiver to ever record two 1,000-yard seasons.
“Just every day, hard work,” Fontenot said, when asked what the record represented. “I’ve been doing this for four years. Just knowing I’ll have my name in the record books at ASH is pretty exciting.”
“When you set a school record for touchdown career receptions, that’s a big deal,” Bachman said. “There’s been a lot of good people through the years to play football here, and to have that record is just a credit to that kid and the career he’s had, the consistency over time. He’s still got a lot of football left with us. I just told him ‘and counting.’”
Alexandria’s secondary gave up some big passing plays in the second half as senior Jordan Coleman broke free several times. Coleman caught five passes for 160 yards, including a 54-yarder late in the third quarter to set up King’s 1-yard TD run.
The Trojans’ defense held West Monroe to just 77 rushing yards in the game and forced four turnovers, including two interceptions of King and a fumble recovery inside their own 10-yard line.
Harris led the Trojans with 11 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and a fumble recovery, while senior safety Letravious Williams added nine tackles, two tackles for loss and a fumble recovery.
Sellers passed for 227 yards, while Kason Williams added 122 rushing yards on 15 carries.
“It was good to see us finally put it together on both sides and play complementary ball – get the stops and then score off those stops,” Letravious Williams said. “We went into this game expecting a four-quarter fight. We just played really well on defense, played really well on offense, and the score took care of itself.”
