REPLAY: LCA uses big fourth quarter to rally past De La Salle, 70-49

HARVEY – This, in the words of De La Salle head coach Graham Jarrott, was like a tennis match.

With offenses trading scores at an often dizzying pace, defenses needed to be able to make a stop – to break serve.
Lafayette Christian got the stops in the second half to come back from a two-score deficit and defeat De La Salle 70-49 in a Division II quarterfinal Friday night at Hoss Memtsas Stadium in a game aired live on Crescent City Sports.

The Knights (9-3), the No. 6 seed in the bracket, advanced to a semifinal against district rival and second-seeded Teurlings Catholic next Friday. The No. 3 seed Cavaliers ended their season 11-1.

The teams combined for 1,245 total yards – 642 by LCA (198 rushing, 444 passing) and 603 by De La Salle (269 rushing, 334 passing).

Trailing 42-38 after three quarters, LCA outscored De La Salle 29-7 in the final 7½ minutes as quarterback JaJuan Johnson accounted for three touchdowns and linebacker Sam Taylor capped the win with a 82-yard interception return for a touchdown in the final minute.

Johnson, a junior who has 15 scholarship offers primarily at cornerback, passed for 444 yards and five touchdowns and rushed for 113 yards and two more scores. His TD strikes all covered 40 yards or more – 40 and 64 yards to Trae Grogan, 55 and 79 yards to Alex Beard and 74 yards to Alonzo Ryes.

De La Salle record-setting running back P.J. Martin scored five touchdowns – extending his school single-season record to 35 – and had 284 yards from scrimmage.

Still, LCA did a solid job hemming in Martin. Outside of TD runs of 80 and 77 yards, the Knights defense held Martin to an average of 1.5 yards per attempt on his other 29 runs.

The Cavaliers led 35-24 at halftime thanks to Martin, who not only broke his two long runs, but caught a 47-yard touchdown pass from Marc Dix.

LCA 14 10 14 32 – 70
DLS 14 21 7 7 – 49

LCA – Trae Grogan 40 pass from JuJuan Johnson (Rylan Thomas kick), 7:01 1st (LCA 7-0)
DLS – P.J. Martin 80 run (Connor Butler kick), 6:50 1st (7-7)
DLS – Marc Dix 8 run (Butler kick), 4:17 1st (DLS 14-7)
LCA – Johnson 4 run (Thomas kick), 2:31 1st (14-14)
LCA – FG Thomas 25, 10:52 2nd (LCA 17-14)
DLS – Martin 3 run (Butler kick), 7:35 2nd (DLS 21-17)
DLS – Martin 77 run (Butler kick), 6:16 2nd (DLS 28-17)
LCA – Grogan 64 pass from Johnson (Thomas kick), 5:49 2nd (DLS 28-24)
DLS – Martin 47 pass from Dix (Butler kick), 4:03 2nd (DLS 35-24)
LCA – Alex Beard 55 pass from Johnson (Thomas kick), 6:49 3rd (DLS 35-31)
DLS – Jason Banks 29 run (Butler kick), 2:09 3rd (DLS 42-31)
LCA – Alonzo Ryes 74 pass from Johnson (Thomas kick), 1:48 3rd (DLS 42-38)
LCA – FG Thomas 24, 9:45 4th (DLS 42-41)
LCA – Johnson 27 run (Beard pass from Johnson), 7:27 4th (LCA 49-42)
LCA – Beard 79 pass from Johnson (Thomas kick), 5:36 4th (LCA 56-42)
DLS – Martin 5 run (Butler kick), 3:28 4th (LCA 56-49)
LCA – Johnson 5 run (Thomas kick), 1:41 4th (LCA 63-49)
LCA – Sam Taylor 82 interception return (Thomas kick), :25 4th (LCA 70-49)