St. Augustine blanks L.B. Landry, 40-0

ALGIERS – St. Augustine quarterback Dawson Simmons misfired on his first five passes against Landry at Morris F.X. Jeff Stadium on Friday night.

Fortunately for the Purple Knights, the 5-11, 180-pound senior didn’t lose his confidence and kept on throwing.

Simmons completed 12 of 21 passew for 236 yards and five touchdowns to lead St. Augustine to a 40-0 victory.

“That’s why we call him ‘rocket,’ because when he gets started he takes off,” St. Augustine coach Nick Foster said.

Simmons completed 6-of-9 passes for 116 yards and three touchdowns in the first half after missing his first five passes.

“I never lost confidence,” Simmons said. ‘I knew my receivers would help me pick things up.”

Simmons threw a high-arching pass to Joshua Jackson, who made a leaping catch to make the score 7-0 with 29.1 seconds left in the first quarter. He later threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Lejon Moore to make the score 14-0 with 6:38 left in the half.

His third touchdown pass of the half came when he threw a ball into double coverage to Keith Hill, who outleaped defenders for a 39-yard touchdown with 2:59 left to give St. Augustine (2-0) a 21-0 lead at halftime.

Meanwhile, Landry (0-2) showed moments of improvement in the first half while looking to rebound from a 33-0 loss to Karr in its season opener. Last week, the Buccaneers offense only crossed midfield once against their neighborhood rivals.

This week Landry drove to the St. Augustine 30-yard line on its first offensive possession of the game only to have to punt. The Charging Bucs will have to wait another seven days to attempt to dent the scoreboard.

The early season road for Landry does not get any easier next week when they travel to face East St. John (2-0).

St. Augustine stays on the road for Week 3, heading west on I-10 to battle Zachary (1-0).