By BRET H. MCCORMICK, Journal Sports

NEW ORLEANS – Alexandria Senior High’s dream of a state football championship came to a disappointing end Saturday afternoon.

The Trojans, who had put together the greatest season in school history with an unbeaten regular season, saw their 13-game winning streak end in a 53-8 loss to top-seeded Edna Karr (14-0) in the Division I Select state championship game at the Caesars Superdome in the LHSAA Prep Classic.

The game unraveled quickly for the No. 2-seeded Trojans, who threw a pick-six on their second play from scrimmage and were down 21-0 before they picked up a first down.

Karr junior safety Aiden Hall picked off Karsen Sellers and returned it 32 yards for the first touchdown just 33 seconds into the game. The Cougars then forced a three-and-out and took a 14-0 lead when John Johnson hit TaRon Francis on a 48-yard touchdown.

Johnson’s 5-yard run with 6:30 to play in the first quarter gave Karr a three-score lead before the Trojans even knew what hit them.

ASH did not score on its first seven possessions. In fact, back-to-back safeties on tackles by Richard Anderson and Lyric Hawkins put Karr ahead 25-0, and Johnson’s 5-yard touchdown run gave Karr a 32-0 lead with 5:38 left in the first half.

“The start was certainly not what you wanted to get into,” Bachman said. “… You can’t spot a team of that caliber 18 points in a half and have much of a chance there.”

It wasn’t until sophomore Max Gassiott scored from 5 yards out late in the first half that the Trojans (13-1) got on the board, but they were unable to score in the second half. The Trojans finished the game with just 188 yards of offense, a season-worst for a team that had scored 40-plus points in all but one game before heading to the Superdome.

JT Lindsey, ASH’s superstar running back, led the Trojans with 115 rushing yards on 22 carries. He finished 24 yards shy of 2,500 rushing yards for the season.

Karr coach Brice Brown said the key for the Cougars’ defensive performance was trying to shut down Lindsey, who had one long run of 36 yards but was otherwise bottled up by Karr’s stout defensive line led by senior Ole Miss signee Corey Amos and Anderson, a 335-pound junior LSU commitment.

“All week in staff meetings, we talked about stopping the best player,” Brown said. “We can’t let the best player on the opposing team beat us. We keyed in on him. … When you have a great defensive staff and great defensive players, it equals to eight points in a state championship game and a running clock.”

“Stop JT,” said Anderson, who had six tackles for loss in the game, when asked about the defensive gameplan. “That’s all we had to do. Stop JT. He’s going to LSU. I’m going to LSU. Some of the plays, I was just talking to him while I was running after him. It was just a fun moment playing against him.”

ASH managed just 60 passing yards in the contest with Gassiott and Sellers combining to go 7-for-21 passing. Sellers was sacked three times, as  the Cougars stopped ASH 13 times behind the line of scrimmage.

Karr, meanwhile, racked up more than 500 yards on offense. Johnson threw for 197 yards and ran for 161 more, combining for five total touchdowns in earning the game’s Most Valuable Player award. Bryant Sanchez rushed for 111 yards and a score, while Francis caught two touchdown passes.

“It’s been an incredible year,” Bachman said. “A lot has been accomplished. It’s hard to put in perspective sitting here right now, 10 minutes after this game. A lot’s been accomplished, a lot that we’re incredibly proud of. The season that we had is one of the greatest in the history of our area, but we didn’t want to enjoy the experience. We came down here to win a football game, and we came up short.”

The main positive for the Trojans was they were able to pick off Johnson four times, including two by junior cornerback Jay Frazier and one apiece by sophomore cornerback Jaytun Terry and senior safety Jaden Lewis.

Bachman said Saturday’s loss did not diminish everything that the Trojans were able to accomplish during the 2024 football season.

“I could not be prouder as a coach, as a man, to sit here with this group of young men,” Bachman said. “… It’s been a lot to get to this point. It’s been a lot. It’s been a lot. These kids are incredible. They have worked their tails off. No matter what anybody told them, they kept believing. I’m proud of them.”