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Photo Credit: Michael Gulledge/Special to PrepsKC

ST. PETERS – The Lafayette County football team had a promising start to Saturday's Class 2 semifinal game at Lutheran St. Charles, but that would end up being the high point of the day.

On the opening drive of the game, the Huskers picked up a pair of first downs and got the ball to the Cougar 17-yard line. But the drive stalled there, and Lutheran picked up a turnover on downs, marched down the field for a touchdown and rolled to a 54-14 victory.

The season-ending loss put a halt to a 12-game winning streak for Lafayette County (12-2), which is the No. 7 team in the Missouri Media Class 2 rankings.

“We had an opportunity to take an early score and just didn't get it done. We had two or three different red zone opportunities, but we turned the ball over multiple times,” Huskers’ coach Steve Cook said. “It was a team effort both by them and by us. We can't point a finger at any one thing. Their ball team came out and played well today.”

AJ Harris, a Stanford recruit, rushed for 123 yards and four touchdowns and caught five passes for 71 more yards for Lutheran St. Charles (11-2), which will take on defending Class 2 champion Lamar (13-0) in the state title game at 3 p.m. Friday at Faurot Field on the campus of the University of Missouri.

It will be the first state football championship appearance for the Cougars, who are the No. 6 team in the Missouri Media Class 2 rankings.

“It's gonna be so fun just having another week with my boys and being able to come out here and practice hard,” Harris said. “I can definitely tell the energy is gonna be very high because this is it, this is what we've worked for, and we're here.”

Lafayette County came into the game with impressive scoring totals on both sides of the ball. The Huskers had been averaging 48.3 points for and 15.1 points against coming in, but those totals were almost reversed in what was easily the lowest total they scored and highest total they allowed in a game all season.

“They've got a phenomenal offense. They do a lot of things. But the kids were disciplined, and we were able to slow them down a little bit,” said Cougars’ coach Arlen Harris, AJ's father. “We took advantage of our speed (on offense) and were able to move the ball around. A lot of people try to stack the box up and take away our run game, but we've got more weapons than people realize.”

After getting that first stop on defense, Lutheran St. Charles marched 83 yards in 10 plays and took a 7-0 lead on a 4-yard run up the middle by AJ Harris late in the first quarter.

The Cougars' opening drive featured two occasions where it was third down, but quarterback Aaron Coffey made throws of 11 and 30 yards to keep the drive alive.

“I don't know if I can count how many times that we had them in third-and-long and their quarterback was very efficient in getting the ball dealt to the sticks,” Cook said. “And we had some very timely missed tackles.”

After each team traded an empty possession, the Lutheran St. Charles defense was able to pop the ball out of Huskers running back Gabe Nevels' hands up into the air. Talan Chandler fell on the loose ball and the Cougars had it at the Lafayette County 45.

Harris took the very next handoff untouched up the middle for a 45-yard score to put the Huskers in a 14-0 hole early in the second quarter.

As they had done on their two previous kickoffs, the Cougars squibbed the ensuing kick and it hit a Lafayette County player allowing Lutheran St. Charles to fall on the ball at its own 48.

The Cougars embarked on another 10-play drive and capped it off with a 3-yard scoring run by Rhoderick Gibson that made it a 21-0 game with 2:36 left before halftime.

The next squib kickoff went out of bounds and the Huskers needed just four plays to go 54 yards. Quarterback Brady Hayes completed two passes for 17 yards and he rushed the ball twice for the other 37 yards, including the final 28 for the Huskers' first score of the day 1:23 before half.

But Lafayette County's momentum was short-lived, as Lutheran St. Charles pieced together an impressive drive in the final 80 seconds of the half and capped it off with Kaleb Mays' 13-yard scoring catch on a slant just 10.7 seconds before the end of the half for a 27-7 lead at the break.

“When you think you've got momentum back and you just can't stop the other team defensively, it's gonna be a long day,” Cook said. “We weren't able to get enough momentum going after that and stop them. We've been on the reverse side of that quite a few times this year.”

Lutheran St. Charles compiled its third 10-play scoring drive of the game to start the second half as Harris dove across the line from the 1 to make it a 34-7 lead just under four minutes into the second half.

Michael Parr Jr. added a 1-yard run of his own with 1:01 left in the third and Harris added his fourth TD run of the game from 12 yards out that triggered the running clock just 16 seconds into the fourth quarter.

The Huskers temporarily put a stop to the turbo clock on a 28-yard shovel pass from Hayes to Mason Rumsey that cut the Lutheran St. Charles lead to 44-14 with 6:54 left, but the Cougars restarted it on Coffey's 9-yard scoring strike to Aidan McLean with 3:45 left,

That would bring an end to a memorable season for the Huskers that ended just short of their first state final appearance since the 2017 Class 2 runner-up team.

“It's a football team where a lot of these young men have been to a state championship game and supported guys, and they know they've got a lot of young men looking up to them,” Cook said. “We're trying to fight to get back there and we just came up short today. They have nothing to hang their heads about. I love each and every one of them.”