Manning, Newman impress in dominant playoff road win over Episcopal

Facing an unbeaten, higher-seeded team on the road?

No problem if you were the Newman Greenies.

With Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin on hand watching, Arch Manning threw a pair of touchdown passes and ran for a third score and the Newman defense shut down Episcopal in a convincing 37-6 victory Friday night in the Division III quarterfinals in Baton Rouge.

It was the most complete effort of the season for Newman.

Manning threw a 28-yard touchdown pass to Will Randle, who also scored on a 3-yard run. Manning also hit Christopher Hunter with a 23-yard touchdown pass and he scored on an 8-yard touchdown run.

Tee Williams added a 30-yard touchdown run for Newman while Kearney Niset connected on a 31-yard field goal for the Greenies.

Newman led 7-0 after one quarter and 17-0 by halftime and the Greenies maintained total control in the second half.

Speaking on the The Three Tailgaters Show on NASH ICON 106.1 FM Saturday morning, Newman coach Nelson Stewart expressed his satisfaction with beating a good program soundly.

“They had won 19 straight regular season games,” Stewart said. “They have a great coaching staff. We had to put a lot into it. In the end, I thought it came down to our ability to run the football. I thought our defense tackled well and played aggressively and we were good on special teams. It was as nice win, a good program win and against someone I respect in Travis Bourgeois.”

Newman (7-2) advances to travel to 4-time defending champion and top seed Lafayette Christian in a semifinal rematch of a year ago. The Knights defeated the Greenies 21-7 in New Orleans in the semifinals a year ago.

The Greenies have done it Manning handling the pressure extremely well.

“This is our fifth trip to the semifinals since 2014,” Stewart said. “Arch has handled the spotlight very well with his character. He has so much humility. He really, truly is a winner. It is about the team. We just focus on ourselves. We treat all games the same. He is not on social media and about offers and accolades and it is kind of infectious to the rest of our team. It’s about the name Newman on our jerseys, not about self. He’s throw for almost 2,000 yards and run it very well.

Lafayette Christian dismissed No. 8 Ascension Episcopal 33-10.

“You know what you’re going to get,” Stewart said. “You know when you play Episcopal, you don’t have a chance to look ahead. They’ve won four straight state championships. They play outstanding defense, loading the box and locking you up outside. They have a great quarterback. They played with Catholic early in the year. They beat Acadiana. If we’re going to win it, we’re going to have to earn it. You are going to have to play and beat LCA. We’ll be ready.”