Second half effort by the Knights propel St. Aug over #1 seed in 5A Zachary
Not having 4 star, LSU Commit, Safety Kylin Jackson was going to force some changes in the secondary for Zachary. In the second half, St. Augustine exploited that by using it’s passing game to move the ball down the field, despite the valent efforts of the Zachary defense.
In another development during the game, senior quarterback, Alabama Commit, Eli Holstein had to leave the field twice in the second half with an apparent left shoulder injury.
This opened the door for The Knights, as Karaaz Johnson would bring in a 43 yard pass and run for a touchdown, from a scrambling Amare’ Cooper, to boost the St. Augustine Knights in the lead with 5:48 left in the game. Zachary had an opportunity to go for the win late in the 4th quarter but The Knights defense would again step up and put pressure on Zachary’s junior quarterback, Hudson Spangler. St. Augustine’s secondary perfectly defended two outstanding passes by the junior quarterback, in the endzone, to secure the win.
St. Augustine now moves to a record of 3-0 and snapped Zachary’s 17 game winning streak.
Zachary dominated the first half only allowing two first downs by The Knights. Senior defensive ends, Indiana Commit A J Thomas and Auburn Commit Ashley Williams, seemed to find a seam to get in the backfield and wreck havoc on almost every St. Aug offensive snap. Junior Safety Ethan Veal and DL Parker Scott were flying to the ball defensively, as well, for the Bronco’s.
Senior wide receiver and special teams specialist, Tylon Williams, was electric for the Broncos as he scored on a 89 yard kick off return in the last 30 seconds of the first half boosting Zachary’s lead to 17-3 at halftime.
Finding itself down 17-3 at halftime, St. Augustine knew they needed to find a rhythm offensively and put more pressure on Zachary’s quarterback to get back into the game. They did just that. Coming out of the halftime the defensive front for St. Augustine, led by linebacker Jahrie Garner, DL Kyran Bourda, among others, began to put more pressure on Holstein causing him to scramble more, along with clogging up the gaps to prevent big run plays. The secondary for the Knights provided good one on one protection and over the top help to prevent Holstein from being able to find his normal explosive wide receiver targets.
On the offensive side of the ball, junior quarterback Amare’ Cooper, extended offensive plays with his legs and found open targets over the middle. St. Augustine also found its rhythm mixing run and pass plays to move the ball down the field. On The Knights first position of the second half, Cooper found freshman running back Keith Hill for a 17 yard pass play to cut the Broncos lead to 17-10. Then at the 2:17 mark in the third quarter, junior running back Moses Gray Jr. punched the ball into the end zone to tie the game up at 17 all.
Zachary would regain the lead on a 37 yard field goal by Kellen Conachen, to end the third quarter, 20-17 Broncos.
But The Knights would put together one last offensive drive that included Cooper scrambling, to avoid Zachary’s defender, and finding receiver targets downfield. On third down and long Cooper found senior wide receiver, Karaaz Johnson over the middle for a much needed completion. But it would be Johnson who would broke tackles and ankles to take the pass to the end zone for a 43 yard touchdown to propel the Knights into the lead at 24-20.
The big turnaround in the 4th quarterback was when Holstein appeared to develop a left shoulder injury after being tackled out of bounds, on one his many run plays. He would then have to be helped off the field in the waning minutes of the game and on the last offensive drive for the Broncos.
Junior quarterback, Amare’ Cooper would end his night with 250 yards passing, with 180 of them coming in the second half.
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