By DAVE WOODALL

Special to L’Observateur

There’s an old adage in sports—never stop until you hear the whistle blow.

The Lutcher Bulldogs failed to heed this fact letting the Karr Cougars pick up a punt that was rolling dead. Everyone on the field was standing and watching the ball roll except for Jarrell Bennett who picked it up and scampered 50 yards untouched for a third quarter touchdown en route to a Karr victory over Lutcher 20-7 in the state 4-A semifinals.

“I’ll have to wait and see the film,” said disappointed Bulldog coach Tim Detillier. “My kids said that they had downed the ball and I trust what they told me.”

Lutcher struck first with only 42 seconds left in the first quarter.

On fourth and one from the 13 yard line Bulldog quarterback Ruston Matherne faked a handoff and bootlegged the ball into the end zone for the score. Nicholas Gatch tacked on the PAT to give Lutcher a 7-0 lead.

Karr answered on their next possession.

Cougar signal caller Devante Noil called his own number going in from one yard out for the touchdown with 9:58 left in the half.

The Cougars then tried a little trickery. Elcee Refuge took the snap, got up and tried a jump pass that missed its’ mark keeping the score at 7-6.

On their next series the Cougars committed their first of two turnovers of the night. Lutcher’s Jaquan Williams picked off a Noil pass to stop the Cougar drive.

Another bizarre play happened which also ended up in Karr’s favor. Karr had driven down to the Bulldog six yard line. On the second and ten snap the ball sailed over Noil’s head and rolled all the way back to the 30 yard line. Noil ran to pick it up and made a split-second decision to throw it away. However, much to the dismay of the Lutcher coaching staff and Bulldog crowd, the referee ruled that there was a receiver in the vicinity and picked up the flag.

The ball went back to the six but Noil’s made his second mistake of the night throwing an interception to Jordan Batiste keeping them out of the end zone again to keep the score 7-6 at the half.

The Cougars came out in the third quarter with a vengeance scoring on their first possession of the second half.

Noil’s faked a handoff and skirted the sideline with a 23-yard touchdown run. Dejon Richardson drilled the PAT putting the Cougars up 13-7.

Next came the “immaculate” punt return that sealed the deal for Karr with a 20-7 margin.

The Karr defense took over from that point on.

“Our defense was stingy tonight,” said Karr head man Jabbar Juluke. “We have a great deal of athletic ability on our team so we just sat back and let them do their thing.”

The Cougar defense held the Bulldogs scoreless in three, straight quarters and held the vaunted Bulldog offense to only four first downs in the second half.

“We were just out manned tonight,” said Detillier. “Our kids had no quit in them and I am as proud of them as any human being can be. ”

The Karr defense held the Bulldogs to only 159 total yards with only 38 coming via the pass and 121 on the ground. The Cougars did a number on Lutcher’s go to guy Daniel Taylor. Taylor had 72 yards on 17 carries which was well below his average.

But it was the Cougar pass defense that made the biggest difference.

Karr held Matherne to only six completions for the 38 yards.

“We’re not finished yet ’cause we’ve got one more to go,” crowed Juluke speaking about his date with Neville in next week’s Class 4-A title game in the Superdome.

The Bulldogs end the season with an impressive 12-2 campaign while the high-flying Cougars carry their 11-3 record into the finals.