St. Augustine, Leonard Fournette stun defending national champion Curtis

In a wild back-and-forth affair, the nation's No. 2 recruit Leonard Fournette and a gutty 2-point conversion call led St. Augustine (New Orleans) to a 29-28 victory over defending mythical national champion Curtis (River Ridge, La.) Friday night.

Fournette, a rugged 6-foot-1, 225-pound running back, rushed 36 times for 262 yards and scored two touchdowns. His second came on a 28-yard screen pass from Toi Jackson with 1:04 left. The play capped a remarkable 14-play, 85-yard drive that featured two fourth-and-long situations and closed the gap to 28-27.

Instead of settling for a tie score, coach Cyrus Crutchfield called for a timeout went for 2 and Jackson, like he did most of the night, delivered.

He scrambled to his left and found Stanley Morgan in the back of the end zone to give St. Augustine its first and only lead of the game.

Curtis took over at midfield, but a fourth-down pass to one of the nation's top all-around athletes Malachi Dupre fell incomplete and St. Augustine (3-1) beat its Louisiana rival for the first time in six tries. The last time the teams met was a 33-0 Curtis win in 2002.

After Fournette tied the game at 21 with a 2-yard run and 2-point conversion early in the fourth quarter, Curtis took the lead 28-21 on a 12-yard touchdown run by George Moreira with 9:53 left in the fourth. A 34-yard run by Raekwon James set up the score.

A sure dropped touchdown pass on its next possession gave Fournette and St. Augustine new life and they took advantage for the winning score.

Quarterback Myles Washington, filling in for injured starter Abby Touzet, gave Curtis a 7-0 lead on a 4-yard run. A special teams play set up the score.

St. Augustine answered right back, driving 88 yards — 72 coming on five carries from Fournette — before Jackson scrambled nine yards for a touchdown to tie the score at seven.

Washington answered for Curtis, as he completed four straight passes, the final 12 yards going to Malachi Dupre for a touchdown, giving his team a 14-7 lead just before the end of the first quarter.

St. Augustine came back with a second-quarter touchdown on a 1-yard sneak by Jackson, but the PAT was booted wide right, keeping Curtis ahead 14-13.

The Patriots drove inside the St. Augustine 10 just before the half, but the Knights held on downs.

No matter, after Curtis stopped St. Augustine on downs near midfield to start the third quarter, then the Patriots traveled 53 yards capped by another 1-yard TD sneak from Washington, giving them a 21-13 lead with 8:29 left in the third quarter.

But Fournette finally got into the end zone, not just once, but twice with 10:54 left in the game to tie the game at 21. First Fournette powered over the center on a 2-yard run to make it 21-19, then swept right on the 2-point conversion. Totally surrounded, he changed directions, swept back left before cutting into the end zone.

The scores capped an 87-yard drive, a great one to be sure. But not as impressive as its final drive. 

The game was played at Tad Gormley Stadium, located in New Orleans' historic City Park and site of many prominent high school games since it was built in 1937. Tad Gormley's playing field was renamed in honor of NFL running back Reggie Bush when the former New Orleans Saints standout donated $80,000 for repairs to the stadium following Hurricane Katrina.

Curtis was coming off a wild 38-33 win over then-nationally ranked Karr (New Orleans) last week. The Patriots had a 23-0 lead after the first quarter in that game, but lost starting quarterback Touzet to a broken collarbone and were outscored 33-7 over the next 30 minutes.

Friday's game was the fourth-straight contest against a tough opponent for the Patriots, who split games against out-of-state powers Bergen Catholic (N.J.) and St. Thomas Aquinas (Fla.) earlier this season.