The home side of an electric Morris FX Jeff Stadium may have hit its peak volume Friday shortly after halftime.
Edna Karr (5-0, 2-0) responded to an immediate near-touchdown strike from St. Augustine (4-1, 1-1) and buckled down to regain possession with a roaring goal-line stand to preserve their two-touchdown advantage.
And senior quarterback John Johnson and the Cougars’ offense marched 99 1/2 yards the other direction for an eventual Tre Garrison touchdown run that instead provided further breathing room on the way to a 42-21 victory in the matchup of highly touted Class 5A and Catholic League rivals.
“It was key,” Edna Karr coach Brice Brown said. “We turned around and flipped the field on ’em and go 99, right? You know, only good teams can do that.”
Johnson, the Liberty commit, accounted for five total touchdowns — a pair rushing, then three throwing to fellow seniors Anthony Thomas, Floyd Jones and Xavier Owens (Fresno State).
The speedy dual-threat moved the Cougars down the field on their second possession with connections to Jones and Owens and onto the scoreboard with a 3-yard keeper with 4:15 remaining in the first quarter.
St. Augustine knotted the game with a 12-yard pick-six by senior defensive back Syre Gilmore with 9:35 in the second quarter.
But an unshaken Johnson and company needed just over two minutes to answer, converting a short, 45-yard field into an eventual 7-yard keeper.
“My dad and my coaches did really have to tell me nothing, because I’ve been there and I’ve done that,” said Johnson, whose father is the Cougars’ offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. “I know how to stay poised. That’s what quarterback’s all about. It’s all about the next play. You know, I stayed poised, I got my team’s energy back up and went back out and scored.”
The Edna Karr defense, highlighted by a third-down sack by Romeo Brown (Alabama A&M), forced a quick punt. And Johnson, Garrison and the offense mounted an 86-yard drive before the half to push the lead to 21-7 with an 11-yard throw into a tight window to Thomas.
St. Augustine doubled Cougars star defensive tackle Richard Anderson all night, but the LSU commit said he was more than happy to watch Brown, junior edge rusher Juelz Batiste, senior linebacker Kevin Martin Jr. (Alcorn State), junior outside linebacker Jermichael Quinn, junior defensive tackle Nigel Marshall and other teammates take advantage.
“I love to see my teammates win,” Anderson smiled. “Let them get the play and turn up with them. I don’t really need to make the plays. I already know where I’m going.”
The secondary meanwhile slowed down the Purple Knights’ typically explosive receiver corps more effectively than any opponent had managed thus far with college-committed seniors Aiden Hall (LSU), Hayward Howard Jr. (Texas), Maurice Williams Jr. (Colorado) and Torrence Sanders (South Alabama) all making timely plays.
St. Augustine entered the week averaging nearly 57 points per contest and ended the night with its lowest scoring output since Week 9 last regular season.
“We gave up uncharacteristically some big plays, but those guys have got an Ohio State offer (Miguel Whitley) and a guy (Ray’Quan Williams) who’s got everything else in the country, so we expected them to make some plays,” Brown said. “It was just about keeping them out of the end zone. And if we did get a big play, it was bend but don’t break, right? So I think we did a good job of that.”
Never more clearly than in the big swing to start the third quarter.
The Purple Knights missed their opportunity after the break, but didn’t quit fighting.
“We made some plays,” coach Robert Valdez said. “We just didn’t make enough plays. You’ve got to come into these games against a good team like this, and they’re No. 1 in the state and No. 10 in the country for a reason. You’ve gotta make the plays. You can’t make the mistakes. And that was the message: that we just didn’t make enough plays.”
Senior quarterback Vashaun “Tig” Coulon and junior tight end Christopher Dupuy linked up late in the quarter for the Purple Knights’ first offensive score, on opportunity set up by a heads-up Verchaun “Birdie” Simms catch of a deflected ball to move the chains.
St. Augustine could never trim the margin back any tighter that 14 points, though.
Johnson found Greg Wilfred for a big third-down catch-and-run that set up a touchdown pass to Jones with 7:43 to play.
Hall intercepted a fourth-down pass near the goal line midway through the quarter to extinguish one threat.
And when the Purple Knights finally did find the end zone again on a long Coulon-to-Simms strike with 3:51 left, the Cougars had another answer: eating nearly two more minutes of clock before Johnson capped his night with a touchdown to Owens.
“This was electric, man,” Valdez said. “This was a great night for New Orleans. This was a great night for the state of Louisiana. I take my hat off to my team. I still believe we’re one of the top teams in the state. Like I said, you can’t just come in here and go toe-to-toe with these people like that. They made the plays when they were supposed to, and we’ve got to go clean some stuff up. But I’ll take my guys against anybody else.”