Richard Anderson bust through the John Curtis line late Friday in pursuit of a potential sack and was instead gifted an even bigger Halloween treat.
A fumble popped loose by fellow senior Cornell Williams III‘s third sack of the night floated right to Edna Karr’s big LSU-committed defensive tackle, who proceeded to rumble 35 yards to his first touchdown in as long as he could remember.
The end zone trip, while a rarity for “Big Rich,” couldn’t have provided a much more fitting punctuation to a 48-26 defeat of the Patriots in a battle of previously undefeated Catholic League rivals in which four takeaways and two defensive scores helped the Cougars create their separation.
“I had some (recoveries) last season, but I’ve been trying to get in the end zone, and I finally got it and I just had to get in there. I had to get in the end zone,” Anderson smiled. “It’s been a minute. It’s been a minute. I was just happy to get in the end zone, doing it for (late teammate) Corey (Adams Jr.). That’s all I was thinking about when I got in the end zone was just: ‘C4, Corey.'”
Edna Karr (9-0, 6-0) opened the night with three straight defensive stops — a fourth-down stand, then back-to-back sack-fumbles forced by Romeo Brown (Alabama A&M) and Williams — to build a 21-0 lead at the end of the first quarter.
Nicholls State-committed running back Tre Garrison capped the Cougars’ first possession with his first of two rushing touchdowns: an 8-yard shake through the A-gap and power through three defenders near the goal line.
Junior linebacker Jamichael Quinn recovered the fumble forced by Brown to set up an eventual 13-yard Anthony Thomas catch-and-run from senior quarterback John Johnson (Liberty).
And, the next play from scrimmage, Martin scooped the Williams’ early forced fumble and returned it 13 yards for Karr’s second touchdown in 19 seconds.
“They’re a very good football team, obviously, and we can not make the mistakes that we made and gave them easy touchdowns,” John Curtis coach J.T. Curtis said. “But their quarterback is a really good player and made some really nice runs. But we’ve got to be able to step our game up a little bit, and we’re gonna learn from this one and move forward.”
Brown, Martin, Williams, Anderson, Quinn, Kylon Jones, Ronell Kindell and company lived behind the line of scrimmage much of the night whether wrapping up tackles for loss or otherwise disrupting and hurrying the Patriots’ attack.
Martin said the Cougars “played sound football, played Karr football, and we did our jobs every play” with a mentality to keep applying pressure to sophomore quarterback London Padgett, but that he knew John Curtis would inevitably punch back.
“I figured they were gonna score some points, but not as many points as they scored this game,” the senior said. “Curtis is a great team and a good powerhouse team, so I expected something to come back.”
The Patriots held onto the ball on their fourth possession all the way to a scramble and 9-yard pass from Padgett to senior running back Jacobi Boudreaux to the end zone.
Lane LeCron helped disrupt a pass attempts on the first play of the Cougars’ ensuing possession, and fellow senior linebacker Jeffrey Curtis corralled the interception to set up an eventual 17-yard touchdown from Padgett to Paul Dufrene V to pull back within 21-13.
The teams traded scores the rest of the half.
Short runs by Garrison and John Curtis senior Gavin Ledet moved the score to 28-20, but Johnson led a quick, 75-yard drive to extend the margin back to 35-20 with a 25-yard dash to the end zone with three seconds left before the break.
“Those kind of things, that’s on us, we’ve got to eliminate that,” J.T. Curtis said of the late score. “And again, you’re playing against a team that you can’t give them an inch because they’re gonna take it. And I think Brice (Brown) told me tonight he’s got 33 seniors on this team. That says something. They’re been there and done that, and they responded positively.”
Defenses dominated the second half with all scores coming off turnovers.
Quinn hauled in a deflecting, ricocheting pass for a third-quarter interception that eventually led to Johnson’s second passing touchdown for Edna Karr, this time a 4-yarder to tight end Cameron Munford (Alabama A&M).
And junior defensive back Prentice “P.J.” Mackyeon Jr. picked off a throw to the fourth-quarter sideline to set up a Ledet touchdown catch on a Padgett rollout to trim the Patriots’ deficit to 42-26 late.
But Williams and Anderson provided the final exclamation mark.
“Happy Halloween,” Edna Karr coach Brice Brown laughed when asked what he thought as Anderson made his way to the end zone.
The Cougars are one of the state’s 15 remaining undefeated teams, boasting Louisiana-best 22-game streak and sitting alone atop the Catholic League standings entering the final week of the regular season.
“Off to Rummel,” Brown said. “You know, it’s off to the next game. You can’t take no breaks, and we play on a Thursday next week, so we’ve got two days to recover and we’re back at it Monday.”
