ALEXANDRIA — Twenty home wins in a row. Three straight victories over Ruston.
Alexandria Senior High used a dominant second-half defensive performance and rushing touchdowns from Karsen Sellers, Kason Williams and Noble Williams to outlast No. 2 Ruston in a 27-21 victory in a battle between two of the top five teams in Class 5A Friday night.
The Trojans’ defense put on a clinic in the third quarter, intercepting Ruston senior quarterback Sam Hartwell (Louisiana Tech) twice and limiting the Bearcats to just 49 yards and two first downs as they broke open a tie game to take a 27-14 lead.
Alexandria (7-1, 3-0 District 2-5A), ranked fourth in the Louisiana Sports Writers Association’s 5A poll, controlled possession and field position in the quarter. But Ruston’s defense stood tall possession after possession to keep the Bearcats in the game.
“You can’t ask our defense to play any better than what they played,” Ruston coach Jerrod Baugh said. “I don’t know what else we can do for our offense besides get all those stops.”
The Trojans took a 17-14 lead at the end of the first drive of the second half, as Eli Fung (Tulsa) made the first of his two field goals from 36 yards out.
ASH forced a three-and-out and then intercepted Hartwell on a tipped pass as senior cornerback Jaytun Terry made an acrobatic, diving grab before the ball hit the ground.
Ruston’s defense continued playing inspired football, however, forcing two consecutive turnovers on downs, including stoning the Trojans’ sneak attempt on 4th-and-goal from the 1 to end their third drive of the third quarter and keep the score at 17-14.
While the Ruston defense was keeping the game close, its offense continued to sputter. Hartwell threw his second interception on the Bearcats’ third drive of the second half, as Alexandria senior Ja’Kyrin Griffin (Old Dominion) made a leaping interception near midfield and returned it into Ruston territory.
Unlike the previous interception, though, the Trojans turned this one into a touchdown as Noble Williams finished off the drive with a 1-yard scoring run to give ASH a 24-14 lead.
After another Ruston 3-and-out, the Trojans pushed their lead to 13 points on Fung’s 27-yard field goal with 8:28 left in the game.
“We did a horrible job executing offensively whenever we really needed to have something to happen,” Baugh said. “And I’m not taking anything away from ASH. It’s partly because they’re a really good football team, but we’ll go back and watch the video and just see thing after thing after thing of mistakes we made. We’ve got to do a better job of that when we play really good football teams.”
Still, despite the Trojans’ complete dominance of the third quarter and early fourth, Ruston trailed by just two scores.
That quickly became one score, as Ruston showed its quick-strike ability with a two–play touchdown drive. Junior Dalen Powell, who rushed for a game-high 153 yards and a score, ripped off an 81-yard run to the Trojans 4, and Hartwell connected with All-American tight end Ahmad Hudson (LSU) on the next play to cut the Trojans’ lead to 27-21.
Trojan coach Thomas Bachman said his team “really had a chance to stretch” the lead in the third quarter but failed to do so.
“There in the second half, we played tremendous defense,” Bachman said. “We held them to (two first downs) there until we give up the big run to Powell, who’s just phenomenal. We had a lot of opportunities to really stretch that lead and put some distance, and you’re just never really that comfortable when the game’s that tight and you hadn’t put that distance between because you know all of the weapons there.”
ASH was able to pick up two first downs and run the clock down on its next drive, but a holding penalty wiped off a third first down that would have ended the game, and the Trojans had to punt the ball back to Ruston with less than 20 seconds to play.
Hartwell completed a 20-yard pass to senior KeShun Malcolm with 4 seconds left on the clock, but time expired as Hartwell attempted to spike the ball and set up a Hail Mary from the 50-yard-line.
Baugh questioned the timing of the final play, saying it shouldn’t take four seconds to spike the ball, but he quickly added that’s not the reason the Bearcats lost.
“We shouldn’t be in a position where we leave it up to an official to salvage one more play or whatever,” he said. “We shouldn’t have been in that position to begin with.”
The game was a showdown between the state’s top two running backs in the 2028 class in Powell and Noble Williams, but it was Kason Williams who looked like the most complete back throughout the game. After struggling with injuries throughout most of the season, Kason Williams turned in his best performance of the year with season highs of 19 carries and 151 yards.
“It was a good game,” Kason Williams said. “I’ve got to get my body right. I was cramping a little bit in the fourth quarter. It’ll be a long week of recovery coming up, but we’re gonna be good.”
Sellers, a Lamar commitment, completed 19 of 31 passes for 204 yards, including six for 67 to senior Alex Fontenot (Maryland), as the Trojan offense racked up 385 yards and 23 first downs in the victory.
Ruston’s offense, despite some eye-popping plays by Hudson and Powell, ran just 46 plays and was limited to 14 first downs in the game.
Hartwell passed for 121 yards and ran for 55, including a 3-yard TD that gave Ruston a 7-0 lead. Hudson finished with five receptions for 65 yards, which featured a leaping one-handed grab that made its way onto ESPN’s SportsCenter and set up Powell’s 2-yard TD that tied that game at 14 right before halftime.
“There’s only so many of those kids on the planet at 6-7, 200 and whatever he is and those type of ball skills,” Bachman said of Hudson.
Griffin turned in a monster performance for the Trojans’ defense with a team-high 10 tackles, including two for loss, an interception and a pass breakup.
Bachman highlighted one of the tackles for loss, in which Griffin tracked a reverse across the field and closed to tackle Ruston senior receiver Josiah Morgan (Baylor) for a 3-yard loss.
“The play that K5 makes on the reverse, many people don’t understand, that’s a big-time play to track that from the backside safety and chase it across the field – he’s just special,” Bachman said.
Terry finished with eight tackles and an interception for the Trojans, while junior linebacker Amarian Simon added eight tackles and a sack.
ASH’s victory moved the Trojans up to No. 4 in the Division-I Select power ratings, according to Saturday morning’s updates on the LHSAA website. The top eight teams in D-I Select earn a first-round bye.
The loss, meanwhile, dropped the Bearcats (6-2, 2-1) to the No. 8 spot in the Division-I Non-Select power ratings, likely knocking them out of the running for a top-4 spot and first-round bye.
While Louisiana’s power-ratings formula has diminished some of the importance of winning a district championship, Bachman said claiming a District 2-5A title remains one of the major goals for the Trojans, who are just two wins away from earning their second district title in three seasons.
“I know for us as a program, it’s made us so much better to have to compete in this district because you better get serious about it, you better work your tail off, or you’re going to get your butt embarrassed,” Bachman said. “It’s driven us. It’s been a great thing for us to have to compete at this level week in and week out, year in and year out.”
