By Doug Gann | 446Sports
ALEXANDRIA, La. — Alexandria didn’t ease into Friday night.
The Trojans kicked the door open, took the hinges with them and spent the rest of the first half making sure Bryant knew exactly whose house it had walked into.
This wasn’t just another opponent coming across the state line.
Bryant arrived in Alexandria carrying back-to-back Arkansas Class 7A state championships and a program résumé filled with titles.
Alexandria answered that résumé with a number of its own.
34-0.
That was the score before Bryant ever found the end zone.
By night’s end, the Trojans had piled up 492 yards, 26 first downs and six touchdowns in a convincing 44-20 victory.
And for much of the night, Alexandria didn’t just look like the better football team.
The Trojans looked overwhelming.
The Purple Avalanche
Alexandria’s first possession lasted two plays.
Its second went 68 yards.
Its third went 86.
Its fourth went 77.
Four offensive touchdown drives.
Four statements.
| Early Alexandria Drive | Result |
|---|---|
| 2 plays, 53 yards | TD — ASH 7-0 |
| 12 plays, 68 yards | TD — ASH 13-0 |
| 5 plays, 86 yards | TD — ASH 20-0 |
| 6 plays, 77 yards | TD — ASH 27-0 |
| Bryant punt mishap | TD — ASH 34-0 |
Karsen Sellers provided the first lightning bolt.
On Alexandria’s second offensive snap of the night, the senior quarterback found Reggie Monroe for a 40-yard touchdown.
Two plays.
Fifty-three yards.
7-0.
Then Alexandria showed it could do it the other way.
Twelve plays. Sixty-eight yards.
Another touchdown.
Next came the ground game.
Kason Williams ripped off a 38-yard touchdown to finish an 86-yard drive and make it 20-0.
Alexandria followed with another 77-yard march.
27-0.
And when Bryant’s punt operation broke down, Julius Sykes-Veal recovered the loose football for a touchdown.
34-0.
At that point, this wasn’t a good start.
It was an avalanche.
Sellers Had an Answer for Everything
Bryant had a problem Friday night.
Commit extra bodies to stopping Alexandria’s running game and Sellers could distribute the football.
Sit back and protect against the pass and he could finish drives himself.
He did both.
| Karsen Sellers | Production |
|---|---|
| Completions/Attempts | 16-of-24 |
| Passing Yards | 212 |
| Passing TD | 2 |
| Rushing Yards | 23 |
| Rushing TD | 2 |
| Total TD Accounted For | 4 |
Sellers completed 16 of 24 passes for 212 yards and two touchdowns without throwing an interception.
Then he added two more touchdowns on the ground.
Four touchdowns accounted for.
But this wasn’t a quarterback dragging an offense along behind him.
Far from it.
Sellers was conducting an orchestra.
And Alexandria had instruments everywhere.
Pick Your Williams
Here’s a problem defensive coordinators won’t particularly enjoy solving.
Noble Williams or Kason Williams?
Noble was the hammer.
Kason was the lightning bolt.
| Alexandria Rushing | Carries | Yards | Avg. | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Noble Williams | 20 | 124 | 6.2 | — |
| Kason Williams | 9 | 116 | 12.9 | 1 |
| Karsen Sellers | 4 | 23 | 5.8 | 2 |
| Noble + Kason | 29 | 240 | 8.3 | 1 |
Noble carried 20 times for a game-high 124 yards.
Kason needed only nine carries to reach 116.
Nine.
He averaged nearly 13 yards every time Alexandria handed him the football and produced runs of 38 and 37 yards.
Together, the Williams duo ran for 240 yards on only 29 carries.
Alexandria as a team finished with 280 rushing yards on 40 attempts.
That’s seven yards per carry.
And now go back to the Sellers problem.
Load the box?
Fine.
He threw for 212.
Don’t?
Fine.
Alexandria ran for 280.
Pick your poison.
Offensive Leaders
| Player | Stat Line |
|---|---|
| Karsen Sellers | 16-of-24, 212 yards, 2 TD; 23 rushing yards, 2 TD |
| Noble Williams | 20 carries, 124 yards |
| Kason Williams | 9 carries, 116 yards, TD |
| Alex Fontenot | 6 catches, 89 yards, TD |
| Reggie Monroe | 3 catches, 52 yards, TD |
| Ja’Kyrin Griffin | 1 catch, 24 yards |
Alex Fontenot became Sellers’ busiest target, catching six passes for 89 yards and a touchdown.
Monroe’s three receptions produced 52 yards, including the 40-yard touchdown that announced Alexandria’s intentions almost immediately.
The Numbers Say Alexandria Controlled This One
Bryant eventually found offense.
The problem was that Alexandria had already built a mountain before the Hornets started climbing.
| Category | Alexandria | Bryant |
|---|---|---|
| Total Offense | 492 | 336 |
| First Downs | 26 | 17 |
| Rushing Yards | 280 | 162 |
| Passing Yards | 212 | 174 |
| Offensive TD | 5 | 2 |
| Penalties | 6-49 | 7-55 |
Alexandria outgained Bryant 492-336 and finished with a 26-17 advantage in first downs.
But here’s the number that tells the early story better than anything:
77.
That’s how many yards Bryant produced on its first six possessions combined.
Those possessions ended with a turnover on downs and five punts — including the punt-snap disaster that became an Alexandria touchdown.
By the time Bryant began finding answers, the question had already been settled.
Three Things We Learned
1. Alexandria’s Backfield Is a Problem — For Everybody Else
Noble Williams and Kason Williams aren’t the same runner.
That’s exactly why this can become such a headache.
| The Two-Headed Attack | Number |
|---|---|
| Combined Carries | 29 |
| Combined Yards | 240 |
| Combined Average | 8.3 |
| Alexandria Team Rush Yards | 280 |
| Share of Team Rush Yards | 85.7% |
Noble gives Alexandria the steady force.
Twenty carries. 124 yards.
Keep handing it to him and let him lean on a defense.
Then Kason walks into the game and changes the geometry.
Nine carries. 116 yards.
A 38-yard touchdown and another run of 37.
That’s not a change of pace.
That’s a change of problem.
2. Sellers Can Punish Whatever a Defense Chooses
This is where Alexandria becomes really interesting.
Bryant couldn’t simply sell out against the run because Sellers was efficient through the air.
And dropping everybody into coverage didn’t solve it either because he could finish drives with his legs.
| Sellers’ Impact | Number |
|---|---|
| Passing Yards | 212 |
| Passing TD | 2 |
| Rushing TD | 2 |
| Interceptions | 0 |
| TD Accounted For | 4 |
Four touchdowns.
No interceptions.
And Alexandria produced 492 total yards around him.
That’s a quarterback doing exactly what you want him to do:
Take what the defense gives you — and make it hurt.
3. The Scary Part? Alexandria Left Points Out There
Forty-four points looks pretty good on a scoreboard.
Alexandria could have had more.
The Trojans missed a PAT.
They missed a 41-yard field goal.
They had another second-half possession end on downs.
And seven of Bryant’s 20 points came when a late Alexandria bad snap was returned for a touchdown.
So while the final says Alexandria 44, Bryant 20, the offensive and defensive performances were arguably even more dominant than that 24-point margin suggests.
That’s worth remembering.
Five Stats That Tell the Story
| Stat | Why It Matters |
|---|---|
| 34-0 | Alexandria’s lead before Bryant scored |
| 492-336 | ASH’s advantage in total offense |
| 280 | Alexandria rushing yards |
| 240 | Combined rushing yards from Noble and Kason Williams |
| 26-17 | Alexandria’s advantage in first downs |
And Don’t Forget the Defense
The offense will get the highlights.
It should.
But Alexandria’s defense created the conditions that allowed the avalanche to happen.
Amarian Simon finished with 12 tackles.
Ja’Kyrin Griffin added eight tackles and recorded the game’s only interception.
And Tyler Bowman spent a good portion of Friday night introducing himself to Bryant’s backfield.
| Defensive Leader | Production |
|---|---|
| Amarian Simon | 12 tackles, QB hurry |
| Letravious Williams | 9 tackles |
| Ja’Kyrin Griffin | 8 tackles, INT, PBU |
| Julius Sykes-Veal | 8 tackles, 0.5 TFL, fumble recovery |
| Tyler Bowman | 6 tackles, 2.5 TFL, 0.5 sack, QB hurry, PBU |
Alexandria finished with six tackles for loss, four quarterback hurries, four pass breakups and an interception.
Bryant quarterback Kyler Shelby eventually finished with 116 passing yards and another 99 on the ground, while Kaleb Leak rushed for 71 yards and Quinton Sykes caught three passes for 86.
But much of Bryant’s production came after Alexandria had already taken complete control.
That matters.
The Bottom Line
Bryant didn’t come to Alexandria as some anonymous opponent.
The Hornets came across the state line with consecutive Arkansas Class 7A championships and the confidence that comes with being one of Arkansas’ most storied programs.
Alexandria didn’t care.
The Trojans scored through the air.
They scored on the ground.
They scored off a special-teams mistake.
They added a field goal.
They held Bryant without a point until the game was already 34-0.
And when Bryant finally showed the pride you would expect from a championship program and tried to make something of the second half, Alexandria answered with another 75-yard touchdown drive.
There will be things to clean up.
The missed PAT.
The missed field goal.
The late bad snap.
But that’s almost what makes Friday night more interesting.
Alexandria scored 44 points and beat a back-to-back state champion by 24…
and still left the stadium knowing it could have been better.
So maybe the number of the night isn’t 492.
Maybe it isn’t Sellers’ four touchdowns.
Maybe it isn’t the 240 yards from Noble and Kason Williams.
Maybe it’s simply this:
BEFORE BRYANT SCORED: Alexandria 34, Bryant 0
TOTAL OFFENSE: Alexandria 492, Bryant 336
FINAL: Alexandria 44, Bryant 20
Bryant brought the championship résumé.
Alexandria brought the avalanche.
And on Friday night, Trojans win. See you Thursday night at walk-On’s.
