John F. Kennedy High School head coach Lynarise Elpheage said that their road victory against St. Amant wasn’t pretty, but the Cougars showed why they are a good football team by finding a way to win on the road despite not playing at their best. That is what the Cougars did in what was a thrilling football game and an early candidate for game of the year with Nahun Lalin kicking a game winning 24 yard field goal with 12 seconds left to win 31-29.
As thrilling of a game it was, it was a sloppy game as well with plenty of penalty flags being thrown between both teams, especially the Cougars, which have been flagged throughout the game 17 times. Despite the hurdles and mistakes that a lot of times were self inflicted, the Cougars overcame that adversity making the victory a little sweeter for Coach Elpheage.
“It means everything. If you look at all the good teams, they go through adversity. Like last week, we played lights out. We were clicking on all cylinders. Tonight, it didn’t look like we couldn’t do anything right on offense. The defense and special teams kept us in the game. It is a three phase game. We were able to put some points on the board and special teams sealed the deal. Good teams find ways to win when everything is not going right and we did that. It shows some character.”
JFK Head Coach Lynarise Elpheage
The Cougars had a lot of explosive plays throughout the game and made timely plays when needed. Senior quarterback Amyne Darensbourg was a problem for the Gators with his arm and his legs as he completed 12 of 23 passes for 235 yards and two touchdowns to only one interception while also carrying the ball for another 207 yards and another rushing touchdown.
“He had a rough first quarter. He missed a lot of throws and made some bad decisions, but after he got his feet under him, he started to make some good throws, some good runs, and he just calmed down and settled in the football game. We struggled a little bit up front. Kudos to them. That is a well coached and good football team. They have been a good program for 20 years. We knew what we were getting out of it and we knew we had a fight and we came out here and fought.”
JFK Head Coach Lynarise Elpheage
James Evans and Jonathan Strowder turned out to be two key contributors in the win for the Cougars as Evans was Darensbourg’s go to receiver with five catches for 175 yards and a touchdown while Strowder had three catches for 25 yards and a touchdown plus a kickoff return for a touchdown.
The Gators also showed their resolve by coming back 14 down in the fourth quarter against a talented JFK team. Junior quarterback Cooper Babin completed 12 of 28 passes for 206 yards and three touchdowns to one interception. His two top targets were Timothy Johnson Jr., who had two catches for 76 yards and a touchdown, and Kaven Taylor, who came up with a couple of the team’s biggest plays with three catches for 39 yards and a two point conversion.
The game showed early why this was one of the biggest Thursday night showdowns. First, it was the Gators that struck first when Babin threw a 68 yard touchdown strike to Johnson Jr. to give them an early 7-0 lead.
The Cougars responded by showing their big play offense when the athletic Darensbourg ran down the sidelines with a 95 yard touchdown run to tie the game.
On the ensuing drive, Babin led the Gators to another touchdown drive by throwing his second scoring toss of the game to Reid Mayers for the go ahead score, but that 14-7 lead was evaporated just as quickly when Strowder returned the tying kickoff return for a touchdown from 97 yards out to make it 14-14.
It seemed as if the game was going to be a high scoring shootout, but penalties and turnovers made it a scoreless second quarter as the game was knotted at 14.
In the second half, the Cougars broke the tie when Darensbourg found Evans in tight coverage for a touchdown to retake the lead at 21-14.
The Cougars created a little separation at 28-14 when the offense capitalized on a crazy interception by Ernest Lyons, who caught the ball in mid-air after it was kicked up by a Gators receiver, with Darensbourg’s second touchdown pass of the game and also the second touchdown to Strowder.
Coach David Oliver’s team did not give up though and came rallying back. In the fourth quarter, down by two scores, Babin kept his team’s chances alive when he heaved the ball up to Kavien Taylor, who came down with a spectacular grab on fourth down. A couple of plays later, the Gators were fortunate as while Carson Sheets went into motion, the ball was snapped accidentally hitting him, but Sheets was able to pick the ball up and find his way into the end zone to cut the Cougars’ lead to a touchdown at 28-21 with 7:25 left to play.
After giving up a couple of touchdowns the last couple of drives, the Gators’ defense got the stop that they needed when Anden Millet intercepted Darensbourg to set up their offense. The Gators’ offense made plays on the most crucial downs and once again converted on another fourth down, but this time, it was a touchdown pass by Babin to Connor Darr to make it 28-27.
Coach Oliver wanted to ride the momentum and decided to go for two. Babin showed his improvisational skills by scrambling, buying time, and finding Taylor in the back of the end zone to take their first lead since the first quarter at 29-28 with just over a minute left to play in the game.
When it looked as though the Gators were going to get their first win of the season and stop the Cougars’ early undefeated season, Darensbourg and company had other plans. On a crucial 3rd down and 13, the Cougars’ senior quarterback threw a dime on an over the shoulder pass to Evans for an 86 yard pickup to eventually set up the game winning field goal.
The JFK Cougars built off an impressive win last week against Warren Easton with a tough win on the road, and continue their early undefeated season at 3-0. They will look to continue their hot start next week by facing another tough road team in the St. Paul’s Wolves.
Meanwhile, the St. Amant Gators will look to get off the schneid next week against Scotlandville.
Stats were provided by Grant Chachere; Videos were also provided by Zach Wade and Cameron Cerniglia!
