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The Lafayette Christian football team honored six of their players on Wednesday with four being named to the GAPPS All-State team (Cody Batistini, Eli Carroll, David Karvelas and Jonathan Ross) with two more being named to the All-Region team (Liam Carroll and Noah Childree). Childree was unable to make it to the ceremony as he recovers from surgery, but was there in spirit.

“Out of over 200 players we had four make All-State, that’s four out of the 20 players on our team,” Lafayette Christian coach Jarred Pike said. 

Karvelas, the team’s starting quarterback for the last two years, was named a unanimous All-State player. The senior led GAPPS in passing yards with 1,996 yards to go along with 651 yards on the ground and 40 total touchdowns.

Karvelas just missed out on the All-State team a season ago and it was a relief to make it in his final season with the Cougars.

“It was one of my goals this year, it was something I really, really tried to earn,” Karvelas said. “There was never quit in this team, even when things didn’t look good.”

Eli is now a two-time All-State player. His stats were not quite as eye popping as they were a season ago, but that was mostly a product of teams avoiding his side of the field.

The junior defensive lineman was second on the team in total tackles with 80 and first in tackles for a loss with 18 and has made a living in opponents back fields the last couple of years. Eli will be looking to cap off an illustrious football career with the Cougars next season as a three-time All-State player and a state champion.

“It’s pretty cool, I’m going to try and make it three in a row next year,” Eli said, flashing a big smile. “I want to break some school records, get better, make the team better and win a state championship.”

Ross enjoyed a real breakout season as a junior and developed into one of the best playmakers in GAPPS this season. He was named an All-State player for leading GAPPS in receiving yards with 713 to go along with 11 touchdowns.

“I wasn’t expecting this to be honest,” Ross said, humbly. “It’s an honor, but not something I expected at all.”

Ross was also a standout on defense, where he racked up 60 tackles this season.

Batistini was a tackling machine for the Cougars this season en route to an All-State appearance. The junior finished with 103 tackles and made an impact no matter where he lined up on defense.

“I’m not even sure what position I got it for,” Batistini said with a laugh. “I started the season at safety and then we had some injuries so I had to move to linebacker.”

Batistini finished second on the team with two interceptions and blocked a field goal this season. He was also sporadically used on offense where he lined up at wide receiver and running back.

Liam, a junior, was often called upon to do the dirty work on both sides of the ball. Liam lined up at offensive and defensive line and dominated on both sides of the ball.

“We want to be better next year,” Liam said. “We are going to hit the weight room, get big and use this as motivation for the freshman that they can do something like this too.”

Liam finished the season with 52 tackles, six tackles for a loss and an interception.

Childree lined up just about everywhere for the Cougars this season. The senior showed a warrior spirit down the stretch of the season and played the final three games of the season with a torn ACL.

“He just had his surgery on Monday and played like three games for us with one ACL,” Pike said.

On defense, Childree was third on the team in tackles with 62 and on offense, he was the team’s no. 1 running back, finishing with 495 yards on the ground. 

The Cougars enjoyed a successful season, going 9-2 and finishing top-4 in the state. Lafayette Christian will return the majority of its players from this year’s team, including three of its four All-State players. 

“Luckily, almost everybody is coming back though we will have to bid David and Noah adieu,” Pike said. “Already looking forward to next year.”