JENNINGS — Moving the ball was never an issue for the Jennings Bulldogs Friday night, it was putting points on the board. And in the end their season came to a screeching halt after a 31-7 Amite victory.

The win moved the No. 3 Warriors (11-2) into the Class 3A state semifinals where they will host No. 15 North Webster next week.

“This feels great,” Amite head coach Alden Foster said. “Jennings is a great program and we are just really excited. Last year we lost to the eventual state champions in the semifinal and our goal was to get back again this year.”

The Bulldogs (9-4) never lost their will to fight, but in the end they were overpowered by a talented and athletic Amite team. The quarterfinal matchup marked the fourth consecutive season that Jennings had reached the final eight.

“I have to give credit to Amite, I thought they did a tremendous job tonight,” Jennings head coach Rusty Phelps said. “We played extremely hard, I am very proud of our kids and our coaches. This senior class reached the quarterfinals every year they were in high school and they are going to be remembered.”

The Warriors leaned heavily on their defense, powered by a tremendous performance by the defensive line. The defense had allowed 20 or more points twice all season and lived up their hype.

“Our defense has been playing great all year,” Foster said. “Coming into this season we said this could be the best defensive line this school has ever had and that has held true so far.”

“We had a really tough time blocking them,” Phelps said. “We lost our two starting offensive tackles in the second quarter and we had to plug a couple of sophomores in, but that’s not to take away from Amite. We just had a really hard time blocking them tonight.”

The first display by the Amite defense came on the opening drive of the game after Jennings had marched the ball 50 yards into enemy territory. At the Warriors’ 22, the Bulldogs were held to negative yardage on consecutive rushes before Brad Porter sacked senior quarterback Kaleb Chaisson for a 17-yard loss and forced Jennings to punt.

On the ensuing drive, Amite running back Kenner Harrell led a 12-play, 99-yard drive with 69 yards rushing on seven carries. Quarterback Devarious Henderson capped the drive with a 1-yard sneak into the end zone to put his team up 7-0.

The Bulldogs drove back into the Amite red zone on three more occasions in the first half only to be stopped short of a score. The first try ended with another long Porter sack that forced a Jennings punt, the second ended in a blocked field goal by Renta Harrell and the third with Joshua Powers intercepting Chaisson and returning it 85 yards for a touchdown.

“We had that big 99-yard drive after Jennings had hit us in the mouth early then we made some really big plays,” Foster said.

The Warriors entered the locker room with a 19-0 lead.

“We just wanted to come back out and be mistake free which we did,” Phelps said. “We scored, we forced a turnover and we had other chances, but it just wasn’t our night tonight.”

The Jennings defense started the second half on a high note, forcing Amite into a turnover on downs in the red zone, but the momentum was stolen on the Warriors second drive of the half when Milton Sanders took an end around 58 yards to extend the Amite lead to 25-0.

Sophomore running back Travis Etienne salvaged the Bulldogs’ lone score late in the third quarter with a 1-yard run that was set up by an Amite muffed punt return two plays prior.

Etienne finished with 113 yards on 22 carries.

Kenner Harrell finished with a game-high 159 yards on 19 carries but never found the end zone.

Henderson scored two touchdowns on the ground while completing 8 of 11 passes for 160 yards and one touchdown.

His main target was Dazarrious Downing, who caught four passes for 84 yards and the touchdown.(Rick Hickman/American Press)

Rick Hickman