By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

When Lutcher’s Gavin Webster scored against Karr on a 10-yard run with 9:57 left in the third quarter on Friday night, it put his Bulldogs ahead 35-13.

And nobody could guess just how important that touchdown would become.

Karr fell a yard short of a chance to force overtime Friday night, as the Bulldogs’ Marc Payne stopped Karr’s Devon Barnes at the goal line on a fourth down play with eight seconds left and preserved a 35-27 win in a non-district game at Lutcher.

Payne made the initial hit on Barnes, and a host of Bulldogs swarmed in to complete the stop.

It was the second of two opportunities Karr (5-4) had to punch it in from the 2.

“You’d have really thought the game would go to overtime, as well as they’d moved the ball on that last drive,” said Lutcher coach Tim Detillier. “When it came down to it, we just made one more play than they did.”

Bulldogs’ quarterback Gavin Webster had his latest huge night in a series of them. He ran 26 times for 117 yards and scored five touchdowns. He added 90 yards through the air, completing 9-of-13 passes.

Lutcher (7-2) needed every last bit of that production to fend off Karr quarterback Munchie Legaux, who passed for 187 yards and three scores, and added 93 yards rushing and a touchdown on 16 carries.

“It was just two teams landing haymakers on one another,” said Detillier. “Two heavyweights were going at it.

“I feel like this game left both teams better equipped for the playoffs. The only shame was that someone had to lose. Everyone thinks that this was just what the doctor ordered.”

The teams were tied after a quarter, after Webster ran for a touchdown, and Legaux threw for one.

The teams — and quarterbacks — began the second quarter in similar fashion. Webster scored on a two-yard run Legaux from 55 yards away, leaving Lutcher with a 14-13 lead (Karr missed the extra point after Legaux’s score). But Lutcher ran out to a 28-13 lead at the half, when Webster scored on two 3-yard touchdown runs, the last coming with 4:21 remaining in the first half.

Webster’s final touchdown put his team ahead 35-13, but Legaux wouldn’t let the Cougars go away.

“Every time it looked like we’d pull away,” Detillier said, “they had an answer.”

With 2:20 left in the third, his 11-yard pass to Jordan Sullen made it 35-19. He found Sullen again for the two-point conversion to make it 35-21.

With 5:15 left in the fourth, Legaux struck again, going long to complete a 44-yard touchdown pass to Kennan Canty.

“We knew we’d be tested,” said Detillier. “The thing that struck me, this team was so much bigger and faster than we us. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them go far.”

Lutcher finishes the regular season ranked No. 8 in Class 3A. a