St. Augustine defensive line coach Matt Brown played on the 2000 St. Augustine team that reached the state semifinals and came up short against West Monroe at Tad Gormley Stadium.

Back in that stadium Friday for another semifinal against John Curtis, Brown watched from near the 40-yard line on the far side of the field from where the Purple Knights would get one last chance to reach the end zone.

“I just heard the stadium erupt,” Brown said about the moment quarterback Vashaun Coulon threw the winning touchdown pass to Derrick Bennett as time expired for a 31-29 victory . “And the tears just started flowing down my eyes.”

Brown went on to say he considered himself “a legacy kid,” and that his “whole family went to St. Aug.”

“My father is no longer here, and I was thinking about those

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