Karr blows past Holy Cross to stay perfect in Catholic League district

Karr rips Holy Cross to remain unbeaten in Catholic League (Ken T.)

The juggernaut that is Edna Karr football rolls on.

The Cougars continued their dominant season to remain unbeaten on the field Friday night, steamrolling an injury-riddled Holy Cross squad 54-7 at Tad Gormley Stadium.

It was an awesome display of excellence in all three phases of the game.

Offensively, A.J. Samuel riddled the Tigers, completing 15-of-18 passes for 345 yards and three touchdowns passing as the Cougars scored on all five first half possessions to take a 34-7 halftime lead and never look back. Samuel also rushed five times for 38 yards.

Karr was unstoppable, amassing 562 total yards of offense.

Tyrone Wilson, Taron Francis and Kylen Lampton were on the receiving end of the three scoring passes from Samuel.

Defensively, the Cougars did not allow a point with the only Holy Cross score coming on an 83-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the second quarter by highly recruiting Koby Young.

In the kicking game, Karr returned both a kickoff and a punt for a touchdown with Lampton returning the second half kickoff 91 yards for a touchdown while Wilson returned a punt 87 yards for a score.

Karr (4-3, 4-0) forfeited three victories on the field earlier in the season.

In their first year in the vaunted Catholic League, the Cougars have crushed four opponents by a 176-38 margin.

Speaking on The Three Tailgaters Show Saturday morning on NASH ICON 106.1 FM, Karr coach Brice Brown expressed his pleasure with watching his team put together a complete performance.

“I was pretty pleased with how we played,” Brown said. “It was an overall team win, especially in the return game. It is good to see our special teams get it in gear. It was perhaps our most complete game of the year. We have talked about not playing our best overall game. We may have exceeded that against Holy Cross.”

While the offense has been potent, the defense has been stout for the Cougars.

“Our defense has been playing exceptional football,” Brown said. “I think we had nine 3-and-outs in the game. They’ve been stuffing the run, playing good coverage and getting takeaways. Ryan Robinson didn’t even dress and we were still good in the secondary.”

As for the offense, Samuel has been everything he was expected to be.

“He’s really been playing lights out,” Brown said. “He has been a great leader for us. He’s the heart and soul of the team because he is in control of the team. He’s free to make audibles, free to make checks, he doesn’t take unnecessary hits and spreads the ball around while making good decisions.”

Despite the three forfeit losses, Karr is climbing the ranks of the Division I power ratings, unofficially now between the 12th and 14th spots. The top eight teams get byes in the first round. No one wants to face the Cougars in the opening round.

Next up, Karr will host Archbishop Rummel next Friday night at Behrman Stadium. The Raiders edged Brother Martin 3-0 Friday night in a game streamed live on Crescent City Sports.

Holy Cross (2-6, 0-5) has dropped five straight games and the Tigers will face Jesuit in the Great American Rivalry Series in the 100th meeting of the two institutions next Friday night at 7:30 p.m. at Tad Gormley Stadium. You can watch the game live on CrescentCitySports.com.

Has Brown looked at the possibility of Karr reaching a top eight seed to get a bye?

“I don’t know where we are in power points,” Brown said. “I’m not looking back. I’m looking forward. We will play anyone in the first round if we have to play and get on a bus to do it. I think the team would rather play in the first round, anyway. They are so focused. They play with character and integrity.”