Coming into Friday night’s game, all eyes across Louisiana were on the historic rivalry matchup between the Edna Karr Cougars and the Catholic High Bears. With Karr still undefeated on the season, facing off against the defending State Champions in Catholic, fans from both sides were in for a treat, with both team’s seasons on the line and no higher stakes this season so far.
To start this game off, Karr QB John Johnson would take the top off of the defense, finding a wide open Daejawn Smith down the sideline who would proceed to spin off two defenders at once and breeze into the endzone to give the Cougars a quick 7-0 lead.
This was a very slow and defensive game from both sides after the first drive score from Edna Karr. Catholic was driving, but as he has done all season LB Tyrik Brigalia made a huge play, an interception, halting the Bears’ drive. But the ice would finally break on a drive set up by a bobbled punt that put the Catholic offense on the Karr side of the field to start the drive. The offense knew that they could not waste this opportunity and RB Jayden Miles would capitalize on a 1-yard touchdown run to give them their first points of the game.
With under a minute, the game looked like we were heading into the half with a score of 7-6 with Edna Karr in the lead. But the Catholic offense who got the ball back with under 45 seconds left had different plans. QB Turner Goldsmith would find WR Cohen LeBlanc on a post route right in between defenders and LeBlanc would make magic happen, juking 2 defenders on his way down inside the 10-yard line. Catholic was now thinking about getting nothing but a TD. On first down they would give the ball to Jayden Miles who came up just short and forced the Bears to burn a timeout. On 2nd down, to save the clock they would go with a pass, a fade ball to their top receiver, Amari Clayton. He would make a tough grab with the defender draped all over him to put his team up heading in the locker room for halftime with a 12-7 lead. They would attempt to go for 2 to take a 7-point lead but the attempt was unsuccessful.
To start the half, the Catholic offense would receive the ball with a great opportunity to take a 2-possession lead. But after 3 strong plays from the Cougars’ defense, Catholic would line up to punt the ball back to them on 4th & 1. Shockingly, they would end up faking it with a direct snap but Karr was not surprised and blew it up in the backfield, giving them the ball already past the 50-yard line and in prime scoring position for this offense. The offense was slowed up by the Catholic defense all night compared to some of their other performances on the season and they were faced with a 4th & 1 as well. They left the offense out and rolled the dice with a QB run from Johnson, where he would start left and end up reversing field for not only the first down but a touchdown as well. This was a huge momentum swing for the Karr sideline and their crowd was back fired up.
Karr was trying to dial up the big play all night long but were not as successful as they wanted. But all of the successful big plays set them up in great positions or put points on the board for them. Daejawn Smith, who already started the game with a 52-yard TD, would go up and make one of the best plays of the game on a moon-ball from Johnson that he would time up perfectly, high-pointing the ball to bring it in over the defender and sending the sideline into a frenzy. This huge play set up another QB scramble from Johnson where he would dive head-first into the endzone while getting hit, putting his body on the line, to put his team up 21-12.
Entering the 4th quarter, down by 9, Catholic needed an answer on offense to give their defense a shot at making one last stand to get the ball back to take the lead. They would get the score that they needed from WR Cohen LeBlanc, who had a huge play earlier in the game to set up the first Catholic touchdown. He would catch a screen pass and follow his block, shaking off one defender, and getting into the endzone to cut the lead to only 2 points with tons of time still left in the 4th quarter.
Catholic would get the ball back twice and have a chance to get a field goal to take the lead in the 2-point affair but as they have done all year, the Edna Karr defense stepped up in a huge way and shut the offense down. They would get the ball back, needing one first down to seal the game and QB John Johnson used his speed on 3rd down to pick up the first and keep the clock rolling. With two kneel downs, the Cougars would celebrate their 12th win of the season and punch their ticket for a chance to play for the State Championship.
Edna Karr heads around the corner to the Superdome for a chance to win a State Championship for the first time since the 2019 season where they won their 4th consecutive ring. They face off against Alexandria, who is also undefeated and widely considered as a top 3 team in the state of Louisiana. Get your popcorn ready for this dog vs dog matchup with two undefeated seasons and a State Championship on the line.
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