By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

NEW ORLEANS – East St. John’s long wait is over.

The tears in the eyes of some players and fans and the broad smiles on the faces of others told the story on Saturday afternoon. The 18th seeded Wildcats exorcized the demons of six consecutive playoff exits and did it in dominating fashion, defeating Brother Martin, 35-3, at Tad Gormley Stadium.

East St. John will host the winner of Saturday night’s game between Jesuit and Sulphur.

The Wildcats punted on their first possession, but would score touchdowns on their next four. When East St. John would finally punt, early in the fourth quarter, the Wildcats’ Troy Gerard recovered a fumble by the Crusaders at the Martin 2, setting up Jalen Kenner’s second touchdown of the day, a 35-3 lead, and making a postgame celebration inevitable.

Quarterback Darion Monroe played extensively on special teams and at defensive back. It didn’t seem to wear him down. Monroe passed for two touchdowns and ran for another.

His first touchdown came from eight yards away after his own 45-yard punt return set ESJ up at the Brother Martin 38.

After ESJ forced another punt, the Wildcats took just four plays to move to a 13-0 lead when Monroe dialed up a deep pass to Marcus Robinson, who got behind the Crusader defense and scored from 54 yards away.

Brother Martin got on the board after a 12 play drive, but ESJ’s defense stiffened in the redzone and made Martin settle for a Michael McCarthy field goal to make it 13-3 with 5:31 remaining before halftime.

This time, the Wildcats proved that they could score in methodical fashion too, countering Brother Martin’s run attack with an accurate short passing game. ESJ converted one fourth down when Monroe scrambled, bought time, and hit Dez Broussard on a sideline comeback on fourth and 10; they got another on a fourth and six on Jalen Kenner’s 12-yard run up the middle. Monroe capped the 12-play, 81 yard drive with a 13-yard pass to the back of the end zone to Broussard. Monroe scored on a 2-point run as well to make it 21-3 at halftime.

Brother Martin tried to answer on its first drive of the second half, but Leonard Davis’ sack of Alex Migloire forced a punt from the Crusader 19. It traveled just 17 yards and the Wildcats cashed in on the fifth play of its next drive, a 7-yard Jalen Kenner run. It was 28-3 with 7:21 left in the third.

Migloire started to heat up for Brother Martin, completing 7 of 10 passes for 70 yards and leading his team to the Wildcats’ 13. But On fourth and six, Rendell Delay shot through the line uncovered and sacked Migliore with 2:34 left in the third, ending the threat.

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