Karr’s offensive explosion leads Cougars to first round victory over Cecilia

After winning the past three Class 4A state championships, winning opening round playoff games should come as no surprise for the Edna Karr Cougars.

The 3^rd seeded Cougars most recent opening round victory in Class 4A came at the expense of 30^th seeded Cecilia, whom Karr defeated by the final score of 49-21 Friday night at Behrman Stadium.

Karr (8-2) had no trouble moving the ball on offense in piling up 448 yards of total offense and 16 first downs while punting just once on the evening. The offensive effort was led by quarterback Leonard Kelly and wide receiver Destyn Pazon. Kelly had a superb night, tossing 5 touchdowns on 10 of 16 passing for 224 yards. Pazon was the recipient of 3 of those touchdowns, finishing with 4 catches overall for 68 yards.

The Karr rushing attack wasn’t to be outdone, however, as the unit put up 224 yards on the ground themselves, including 54 yards and 2 touchdowns for Leonte Richardson.

The Cougar defense did their part as well, piling up 4 sacks and an interception by Dylan Smith while holding Cecilia to just 37 rushing yards.

Head coach Brice Brown believed getting out to a 21-0 lead in the first quarter helped set the pace for the game.

“We started off fast,” said Brown. “That was the key. It was crazy with the cold weather practicing all week. We just had to tough it out at practice. Leonard made some good throws early on. The wide outs have to finish some of their catches too so we don’t have to run another play and get off the field a lot sooner.”

Brown was speaking of 3 drops by the Cougar receivers including 2 in the end zone, the lone blemish for Karr all night.

Cecilia (4-7) scored 2 of their three touchdowns thanks to trick plays. Following a 56 yard flea flicker pass to get down to the 2, Danarious Journet punched the ball in o a run to get on the board in the 2^nd quarter. Cecilia scored again in the 4^th on another flea flicker from Ethan Howard to Jalen Celestine from 51 yards out. That accounted for 109 of the Bulldogs 296 total yards of offense, an additional 84 of which came on the final drive of the game culminating in a 22 yard score to Howard from quarterback Alex Soileau.

“Karr’s a great football team,” said head coach Dennis Skains. “We knew we’d have to get some breaks and it didn’t happen that way tonight but I’m still proud of my kids.”

Kelley’s touchdown passes to Pazon were from 29, 3 and 19 yards out respectively while he added scoring strikes from 23 yards out to Aaron Anderson and 84 yards out to Darrell Hills respectively.

Richardson’s touchdown runs were from 24 and 8 yards out respectively.

Karr will face 19^th seed Carver in the second round next week.