New Orleans — The Amite Warriors knocked-off the defending state champions, defeating Welsh 47-20 to win the LHSAA Class 2A State Title Friday afternoon. The Warriors were led by game MVP and University of Kentucky commit, Amani Gilmore, who threw for 5 touchdowns and rushed for another. He connected with Kyle Maxwell for two of those touchdowns and Cameron Henderson for two more. Devonte Lee also had a touchdown and led the passing attack with 118 yards on three catches. As a team, the Warriors offense out-gained the Greyhounds 442-240 in total yards and did not punt in the game.
Amite jumped on the board first and never trailed. They were up 13- nothing through the first quarter, 27-7 at the half and 41-13 through the third.
This mark’s Amite’s 5th state championship but first since 2004. This is their first in class 2A, with their others coming in class 1A (1963) and class 3A (1994, 1999, 2004). After the game, Amite Head Coach Zephaniah Powell spoke about how much this win means to their team and their community.
“It was 14 years since our school, since our community, since our kids, since our program have hoisted a state championship, and it was way too long,” Powell said. “It wasn’t pressure on me to get this job done because as you can see, the kids that I have, they’re phenomenal. They’re phenomenal. When we came into the football game, Corey [Mcknight] comes in and says, ‘Coach, this is going to be easy work. Just trust us. Just trust us. Just turn us loose and let us play football,’ and that’s exactly what we did.”