ALEXANDRIA – The ASH Trojans scored 34 unanswered points before halftime Friday night and cruised to a 44-20 victory over Arkansas powerhouse Bryant as they continued to state their claim as one of Louisiana’s top teams in 2026.
Senior Lamar-committed quarterback Karsen Sellers tossed two touchdown passes and scored two more on the ground as the Trojans showcased their balanced offensive attack in a near-perfect first half.
Alexandria Senior High scored on its first four offensive possessions and took advantage of a Bryant special-teams miscue to add a fifth TD before halftime as the Trojans, who are ranked sixth in the Louisiana vs. All Y’all preseason top 50 and No. 5 in the Louisiana Sports Writers Association’s Class 5A poll, rolled to a dominating 34-0 halftime lead.
“We came out super explosive,” said Sellers, who threw for 212 yards and two TDs to lead an offense that racked up almost 500 total yards. “The defense went out and did their job, got a stop, and I knew we had to go put it in. I feel like we were very explosive to start the game. The tempo was helping us a lot. I feel like that was the main part in us getting going and being able to take some plays to the end zone.”
Sellers found senior slot receiver Reginald “Donut” Monroe on a screen on the Trojans’ second offensive play, and Monroe weaved his way through the Bryant defense for a 40-yard score. ASH went up 13-0 when Sellers kept on an option-read and ran 18 yards into the end zone.
Over the past two seasons, Sellers relied mostly on his arm, throwing for almost 4,000 yards and 49 TDs, but he said to expect “to see a lot more” of him utilizing his legs this season.
Junior tailback Kason Williams broke free for a 38-yard score to cap ASH’s third possession before Sellers scrambled and powered his way into the end zone from 3 yards out to put the Trojans ahead 27-0.
Williams, who sat out the Trojans’ preseason scrimmage and jamboree while rehabbing a hamstring injury, showed little rust as he ran for 116 yards on just nine carries. Fellow junior tailback Noble Williams added 124 rushing yards on 20 carries as the Trojans rushed for 280 yards in the game.
The Trojans scored their fifth touchdown after a Bryant snap sailed over the punter’s head and rolled into the end zone. Senior safety Letravious Williams dove and batted the ball to keep it in bounds so that senior linebacker Julius Sykes-Veal could pounce on it for the score.
The execution wasn’t perfect for the Trojans, as they let multiple chances to get to a running clock slip away and watched as a reinvigorated Hornets squad scored on its first two second-half possessions.
“We gotta go score right there to open the second half and kind of really begin to nail it shut,” ASH coach Thomas Bachman said.
Instead, Bryant got two defensive stops and two offensive scores, which cut the Trojans’ lead to 34-14, bringing the Hornets’ fans back into the game and notably increasing the energy on the their sideline.
“I feel like we came out a little slow, and they came out and brought a lot of energy in the second half,” Sellers said. “… We’ve just got to keep the energy going the whole game.”
Instead of allowing the momentum swing to completely flip the game, though, the Trojans responded with a 75-play drive that ended when Sellers connected with senior Maryland commitment Alex Fontenot for a 23-yard touchdown and a 44-13 lead. Fontenot led the Trojans with six receptions for 89 yards.
“I’m proud of our kids that we found a way,” Bachman said. “Now we’ve got to do a better job coming up and really just nailing it shut to open the half.”
Senior kicker and Tulsa commitment Eli Fung capped the Trojans’ scoring with a 37-yard field goal, and the Hornets added a late touchdown in the final minute of the game on a scoop-and-score following a bad snap by the Trojans’ second unit.
“We’ve still got a lot of work to do,” said senior safety and Old Dominion commitment Ja’Kyrin Griffin, whose fourth-quarter interception in the end zone thwarted a potential Hornets’ scoring drive. “We know we had a lot of mistakes still, so we’ve got to get back in the lab and work on what we had mistakes on. That’s it. Keep getting better.”
“There’s a lot of room for improvement,” Bachman said. “It’s a long season. This is just beginning.”
Bryant (0-2) has won seven of the past eight Class 7A championships in Arkansas and was supposed to provide a talented and experienced ASH squad a much-needed early-season challenge.
The Trojans passed that challenge with ease with what Griffin called “a big statement win,” but there are major challenges that still remain including non-district matchups with Lafayette Christian and Neville, and a District 2-5A slate that includes No. 1 Ruston and defending Division I Non-Select state champion Ouachita.
“This group that we’ve got right now is about it,” Bachman said. “They want to play. They like competition. They aren’t afraid. They know what they’ve got in front of them. They know they’ve got to play well when you get in these environments against quality competition. But there’s not many of them that are batting an eye when they get into it.”
