Louisiana
Louisiana high school playoff drama: Upsets, Standouts and Showdowns shaping the path to glory
The Louisiana high school football playoffs are heating up, with underdogs defying the odds, powerhouse teams flexing their dominance, and individual stars shining under the bright lights. This week’s matchups offered everything from nail-biting finishes to unexpected blowouts, setting the stage for high-stakes quarterfinal showdowns. As the race to the state championships narrows, these eight key takeaways capture the action, drama, and standout performances defining this season’s playoff intensity.
In Division I nonselect, No. 6-seeded Southside rolled to a 47-0 shutout of No. 22 Walker and can reach the semifinals for the first time if the Sharks can upset the reigning state champs.
The Sharks (9-2), who will travel to No. 3 Ruston next, are led by running backs Ramon Singleton and Justin Williams. Singleton has rushed for 1,239 yards on 187 carries with 13 TD. Williams has 1,074 yards on 161 carries with 10 scores. Quarterback Parker Dies is averaging 8.2 yards per carry with six TD. The Sharks were 4 of 5 passing for 82 yards and a TD against Walker.
Three lower seeds advanced to the quarterfinals: No. 24 Chalmette upset No. 8 Hahnville, No. 21 West Monroe took down No. 5 Mandeville and No. 10 Destrehan blew out No. 7 Northwood-Shreveport, 63-21.
Malachi Dabney scored six touchdowns in Destrehan’s win, according to Ryan Arena of The St. Charles Herald Guide. Receiver Jabari Mack left the game with an injury after scoring an early TD. The Wildcats (9-3) travel to No. 2 Airline (11-0) in the quarterfinals.
John Curtis Christian finished with a sub-.500 regular-season record for the first time since 1969, but the No. 19-seeded Patriots are doing Patriot things in the Division I select playoffs.
John Curtis, which lost its last three regular season games, beat No. 14 Brother Martin and No. 3 Acadiana to advance to the quarterfinals. Quarterback Reggie Johnson marched the Patriots, who were trailing by five points, 77 yards with less than two minutes remaining and threw a TD pass to freshman Jarvis Stevenson for a 28-27 win, according to Nick Fontenot of The Acadiana Advocate. Stevenson has five catches for 77 yards on the season with the huge touchdown.
The Patriots (6-5) travel to No. 6 Teurlings Catholic (10-1), which defeated No. 11 Jesuit, 31-23. John Curtis lost to Jesuit during district play, 17-10.
Cecilia and Opelousas, who met in the Division II nonselect final last year, defeated higher seeds to keep the chances of a rematch alive. The No. 18 Bulldogs and No. 14 Tigers will meet in the semifinals if both can win on the road again.
No team had scored more than 20 points all season against undefeated No. 2 Lutcher before Cecilia visited on Friday, according to Reed Darcey of The Baton Rouge Advocate.
The Bulldogs topped that total in the first half of a wild 49-41 shootout. Senior quarterback Diesel Solari accounted for five touchdowns (three passing, two rushing). Sophomore Braylon Calais rushed for 113 yards on 15 carries with two TD.
Two UL Ragin’ Cajun commits went head-to-head with Cecilia’s Brent Gordon and Lutcher running back Trenton Chaney, who ran for 194 yards on 24 carries with three TD.
Opelousas kept its end of the bargain by eliminating No. 3 Jennings, 30-19. The Tigers (8-3) travel to No. 6 Plaquemine (11-1), which knocked out No. 11 Northwest, 49-34.
Cecilia (9-3) visits No. 7 North DeSoto (10-2).
No. 1 Archbishop Shaw hosts No. 8 John F. Kennedy in a highly anticipated Division II select quarterfinal. The Eagles (9-2), who beat No. 16 Loranger 49-14, got three rushing touchdowns in the first half from Michigan commit Jasper Parker.
Parker, the district MVP, finished the regular season with 1,501 all-purpose yards and 22 TD.
John F. Kennedy (7-4) is a dangerous No. 8 seed that lost three games by forfeit. The Cougars got a scare from No. 9 Lake Charles College Prep but held on to win 51-37. JFK had allowed only 20 points during its last six games.
The No. 2 seed in Division III nonselect was ousted when No. 15 Loreauville defeated No. 2 Erath, 28-7, in a rematch of Week One won by Erath. Loreauville exerted control from the outset, stopping Erath on its first possession and taking a 7-0 lead on a 48-yard pass from Hayden Benoit to Gavin Judice.
Maddox Savoy didn’t reach the end zone, but he moved the chains with 155 yards on 27 carries for an offense that had 23 first downs and outgained the Bobcats by 200 yards.
Loreauville (6-5), which began the year 0-4, travels to No. 7 Jena (9-3). Blake Delcambre relieved Benoit at quarterback during a drive and capped it off in two plays, completing a long pass to Blaise Romero and keeping the ball himself for a 30-plus yard TD run.
Lafayette Christian, like John Curtis, worked its way through a sub-.500 regular season. The Knights faced a challenging schedule that included Archbishop Rummel, Archbishop Shaw, Central-BR, Evangel Christian and a Westgate team that was fully loaded with Jaboree Antoine at the time.
The No. 9 Knights avenged an earlier loss by beating No. 8 Notre Dame in Division III select, 35-28. Ball-hawking defensive back Chris Helaire and LCA will have to upset No. 1 Dunham (11-0) and five-star QB Elijah Haven to keep their streak of consecutive title game appearances alive.
Junior quarterback Braylon Walker dissected the Notre Dame defense for 103 yards on 11 carries with four TD. He completed 14 of 17 passes for 187 yards and a score.
In the regular season loss to Pioneers, Walker rushed for 44 yards on 15 carries with a TD. This is the third time in eight years the Knights have lost a district game and avenged it in the playoffs, according to statistician Hayden Lessard. LCA did it in 2017 (Vermilion Catholic) and 2022 (Teurlings Catholic), beating both in the semifinals.
No. 7 Catholic-New Iberia (10-1) and QB Luke Landry travel to No. 2 Isidore Newman (9-0) in another marquee D3 matchup. Landry has passed for 31 TD with only one interception. The Greenies will counter with QB Eli Friend.
Jeanerette pounded No. 13 Grand Lake, 46-24, in Division IV nonselect. Sophomore running back Devine Duhon, who was sidelined by injury late in the regular season, returned and accounted for 261 yards and six TD. The No. 4 Tigers (8-2), who host No. 12 General Trass in the quarterfinals, were also without quarterback Zyon Colar for a loss to Central Catholic.
The nation’s top running back, five-star LSU commit Harlem Berry, and the ninth-seeded St. Martin’s Episcopal Saints were handled by a St. Edmund offense that has produced zany numbers all year.
Quarterback Kane West completed 12 of 14 passes for 237 yards and two TD and rushed for 73 yards on 11 carries with five TD. But that’s not all. The strongman converted eight two-point conversions in the 78-37 win.
Tailback Henry Summerlin went over the 1,600-yard mark for the year with a 326-yard effort for the No. 8 Blue Jays (10-1), who travel to No. 1 Vermilion Catholic (11-0) and 2,100-plus yard rusher Jonathan Dartez in the Division IV select quarterfinals.
West, who threw touchdowns on approximately half of his regular season completions, has 14 rushing TD. He scored five two-point conversions in a win over Opelousas Catholic.
With upset wins, stellar individual performances, and underdogs rewriting expectations, this year’s Louisiana high school football playoffs are shaping up to be unforgettable. The stakes only get higher as the quarterfinals loom, promising more drama and excitement ahead.
Louisiana
Jeff Landry signs executive order on protecting ratepayers, but defends Louisiana data centers
Gov. Jeff Landry signed an executive order Thursday while flanked by Louisiana utility company executives saying that data center projects must have their benefits to citizens “evaluated and balanced” against their use of electric generation, water and land.
Landry named the order the “Ratepayer and Community Protection Framework for Large Load Investments,” assigning the Louisiana Economic Development Office to ensure that future projects “adequately protect Louisiana’s resources, ratepayers, and communities,” according to the text of the order.
“These resources are vital to the welfare of our citizens and to the future of our economy, and that is why our approach demands thoughtful and responsible stewardship,” Landry said.
The order comes on the heels of questions around Entergy’s plans to purchase a $1.8 billion power plant in Texas, which a consultant for the state’s Public Service Commission said is largely needed for Meta’s north Louisiana data center.
The gas-fired Cottonwood plant would cost average residential ratepayers $8 a month, records show. Entergy and Meta have disputed that it’s needed for the data center.
Landry last week expressed concerns about the plant in a social media post responding to coverage from The Times-Picayune | The Advocate. He said Entergy promised him Meta would not pass along costs to customers.
“The PSC should not allow anyone to take advantage of power markets at the expense of our ratepayers,” he said last week.
On Thursday, though, Landry punted taking a position on the plant to the Public Service Commission, which he dinged as “somewhat dormant” for the past 50 years. Landry also repeatedly defended data centers, saying they are vital for Louisiana’s future.
“I don’t get a vote,” he said. “That’s a decision for the public service (commission) and that’s something for them and Entergy to work out.”
The Public Service Commission’s five-member elected body has the ultimate authority over whether to approve the purchase.
The consultant, Lane Sisung, who regularly analyzes utilities’ proposals for the commission, raised other concerns about the plant as well. The plant’s private equity owners bought it a few years ago for far less than what Entergy plans to pay for it. It’s also 22 years old and has had reliability issues that would require Entergy to spend hundreds of millions more on improving it, the report said.
Entergy President and CEO Phillip May attended the press conference Thursday but did not speak at it. In a statement Entergy released afterward, the utility defended the Cottonwood plant.
“The Cottonwood generating facility is needed to support broader customer growth across Louisiana and deactivation of legacy units that have been serving all customers for over five decades, and it has been part of Entergy Louisiana’s supply plan before Meta was a potential customer,” the statement from Entergy said.
“Despite reports to the contrary, through its contract term, Meta is fully supporting and funding the construction of 7.5 gigawatts of new, highly efficient natural gas generation, along with additional solar and battery resources and purchase capacity,” the utility said.
A Meta spokesperson, Francis Brennan, described the consultant’s report as “inaccurate speculation” in a statement last week. He pushed back against claims that ratepayers picking up the tab for the Cottonwood plant would violate a White House pledge from the spring, in which tech companies agreed to pay for their own data center power needs.
“Meta pays its own way, both for the power and new infrastructure we use,” Brennan said. “Our agreement with Entergy is built to guarantee we pay those costs, not Louisianans.”
Concerns about the plant in southeast Texas have come from both state Republicans and Democrats.
PSC member Davante Lewis, a Democrat who represents Baton Rouge and New Orleans, held his own press conference after Landry’s on Thursday afternoon. He said that while he agrees with Landry’s contention that data centers should bear their own costs, Landry’s actions have differed.
Lewis noted that while Landry spoke of transparency and accountability, he’s also signed nondisclosure agreements related to Meta’s data center.
“When he says we are committed to making sure these energy-intensive organizations are paying their own costs, that’s simply not true,” Lewis said.
PSC member Eric Skrmetta, a Metairie Republican who has supported data center projects, said last week that he does not plan to approve the plant’s purchase unless Meta pays for it. He described the sale price as “taking advantage of the moment.”
Mike Francis, another Republican commission member who represents Crowley, said in an interview this week that he generally trusts Sisung.
“If that’s his opinion, I’m going to be inclined to go with it,” Francis said. “But I haven’t seen all the details yet.”
State Sen. Bob Hensgens, a Republican who chairs the Senate Committee on Natural Resources, recently warned Francis in a letter about data centers’ potential impact on customers’ electric bills. Hensgens, who represents Abbeville, asked the commission to consider “stronger safeguards” to protect residential and small commercial ratepayers from bearing power costs for data centers.
This is a developing story. Check back later for more.
On Monday morning in New Orleans, 23-year-old Daniel Cressy rang a bell inside Manning Family Children’s hospital and stepped into what he calls “Life 2” — a life, for the first time, free of sickle cell disease.
His treatment using Casgevy’s CRISPR/Cas9, a gene-editing technology, makes him the first patient in Louisiana and the Gulf South to receive the therapy. It is a milestone that doctors say signals a turning point for a disease that has long devastated Black communities with too few answers and even fewer options.
“While many spend their lives searching for purpose, mine found me,” Cressy said after being found sickle cell free. “Now, instead of looking for meaning, I can spend my life fulfilling it.”
Cressy’s bell-ringing is the latest in a string of firsts reshaping the country’s approach to sickle cell. In 2024, 21-year-old Sebastien Beauzile became the first in New York to be treated. Declaring afterward, “I feel unstoppable.”
Earlier this year, 24-year-old Chantez Sanford Jr. became the first person in Michigan to receive Lyfgenia — the second FDA-approved gene therapy — at Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, reporting more energy and fewer pain episodes just months later.
Both treatments were approved by the FDA in December 2023, and are now itching toward being used more widely.
The stakes are high. Sickle cell disease affects approximately 100,000 people in the United States, with more than 90% being Black. Louisiana, the second-Blackest state in the U.S., carries one of the highest per-capita burdens of any state in the country.
The hospital’s chief executive officer, Lucio Fragoso, said Cressy’s cure provided a substantial reason to “hope” for the South.
“Curative gene therapy is restoring futures, and Daniel has paved the way for what is possible together with his care team,” Fragoso said. “This is a proud and transformational moment for all of us.”
Diagnosed as an infant, Cressy had long harbored a dream of becoming a commercial airline pilot — until the federal government told him his sickle cell diagnosis was disqualifying. He appealed, but the answer didn’t budge. A cure was his only option.
When Manning Family Children’s hospital received approval to offer the gene-editing treatment, Cressy began working with his doctors. In late 2025, his cells were sent to Scotland for genetic modification, returned to New Orleans this March, and infused back into his body on March 18.
Sickle cell disease causes red blood cells — normally round and flexible — to harden into a rigid, crescent shape that can’t move easily through blood vessels. Those misshapen cells block blood flow and oxygen delivery to organs and tissue, triggering episodes of excruciating pain, strokes, and over time, irreversible organ damage. The disease is most prevalent among people whose ancestors come from regions where malaria was historically endemic, namely sub-Saharan Africa. In the U.S., it was passed down at higher rates through generations of descendants of enslaved Africans.
But even as the science advances, access remains an open and urgent question. Cressy’s treatment carries a list price of $2.2 million; Lyfgenia, runs $3.1 million. The very communities most burdened by sickle cell disease are also, structurally, the least positioned to navigate a $3 million treatment pathway.
Studies show that those diagnosed with sickle cell disease are more likely to be poor and face challenges with access to stable housing and healthy food.
Between 50% and 60% of people living with sickle cell disease are enrolled in Medicaid, a program that has historically struggled to connect people with high-cost medical therapies. As of December 2025, only 33 states and two territories had opted into a model designed to standardize Medicaid access to sickle cell treatments — leaving significant gaps. Cressy, who joins about 100 other Americans who’ve received this treatment, was able to access care under Louisiana’s Medicaid program.
Cressy knows that weight, and says he feels a sense of obligation because of it.
“I feel like God chose me to be the first one in the state because my story, once I do finally become a commercial pilot, is going to be inspirational for a lot of people,” he said. “Overcoming what seemed impossible became my greatest blessing.”
Read More:
Medicaid Tries New Approach With Sickle Cell
SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) – Attack ads aimed at Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming and U.S. Rep. Julia Letlow have been running for weeks as the two Republicans compete in the race for Louisiana’s open U.S. Senate seat.
Fleming said political action committees have been “running dishonest attack ads for two weeks solid,” including ads he said connect him to the Sept. 11 attacks.
“I fully expect at some point they would connect me to the assassination of Lincoln,” Fleming said.
Letlow said she wants negative campaigning to stop.
“I’ve had $15 million dropped on my head in negative ads, and I understand that’s why people won’t run,” Letlow said.
Carbon capture has also been a major issue in the race. Carbon capture is described in the report as a process in which carbon dioxide from industrial installations or natural resources is separated before it is released into the atmosphere and then transported to a long-term storage location.
Fleming said he opposes carbon capture. Letlow said claims about her position have been misrepresented.
What Fleming, Letlow say on carbon capture
“I want a good economy for Louisiana, but there are things we have to do like lowering taxes, reducing insurance rates to get better business — not by a toxic dump of carbon dioxide,” Fleming said, referencing what he called “Julia Letlow and Jeff Landry’s method” of pursuing economic growth.
Letlow said she does not support projects that are not safe or lack community support.
“If the project is not safe, if it does not have community finance, I believe it should not move forward,” Letlow said. She also said she appreciates “the governor’s moratorium on the projects until they can be fully vetted,” and told voters not to believe what they read on social media.
Candidate backgrounds highlighted in the report
The report said Fleming previously served in Congress and was appointed to several positions in the Trump administration. Fleming is described as a Minden native, a Navy veteran, a physician and a businessman.
Fleming said he is mostly funding his own campaign.
“I can’t be bought,” Fleming said. “I stand for the individual people.”
The report said Letlow is a Monroe native. It said she ran in a 2021 special election for a vacant congressional seat previously held by her late husband, Luke Letlow, who died from COVID.
Letlow said her priorities include safe communities, border security and growing the economy.
“I want those safe communities for our kids,” Letlow said. “I will continue working with the president to make sure our border remains secure. I also want to grow our economy.”
Copyright 2026 KSLA. All rights reserved.
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