Lack of offense dooms Darlington against Lamar
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PHoto by Drake Horton
By Drake Horton, Contributing Writer
Stout defense, good special teams and big plays once again played a big role in the Darlington Falcons football game.
And once again it was Darlington that was on the wrong side of those three game points as the Lamar Silver Foxes played outstanding defense, out played the Falcons on special teams and made the big plays when it needed it.
In the end, it resulted in the Silver Foxes shutting the Falcons out 23-0 on Thursday, September 1 after the game was moved up a day due to Tropical Storm Hermine.
“Overall I am just real proud of these guys,” Lamar head coach Corey Fountain said. “We worked hard this week. We really only practiced twice this week; Monday and Tuesday we went at it hard for about two hours.”
Lamar struck first with both special teams and a big play late in the first quarter as Roderick Brown returned Darlington’s third punt of the quarter for over 40 yards for the touchdown.
The Silver Foxes kept the special teams scoring theme going early in the second quarter with Lamar increasing its lead over Darlington to 10-0 with a 28-yard field goal.
The second quarter did not stop there, however, as Lamar went back to its big play prowess. With 5:23 left before the half Jeblonski Green Jr. broke free for a 43-yard touchdown run as the Silver Foxes increased their lead to 16-0.
After a scoreless third quarter and a mostly slow fourth quarter for both teams, Lamar capped the game off with another outstanding defensive play.
As Darlington was putting together one of its best offensive drives of the game, Lamar’s Malik Johnson picked off backup quarterback Silas Barr’s throw and returned it for a 60-yard touchdown with 1:46 left increasing the Silver Foxes lead to 23-0.
Defensively, however, Darlington may have played its best game as well. The Falcons forced Lamar to turn the ball over on downs twice inside the Falcons 15-yard line while also blocking one field goal and causing another to go wide left.
“Our defense played well, our coaches had them well prepared,” Darlington head coach John Jones said. “They deserved to win the ball game defensively.”
Offense was a completely different story for Darlington. Turnovers, missed assignments and an overall lack of execution on plays were just a few of the problems for the Falcons when it came to the offensive side of the football.
“Offensively we didn’t pull our part,” Jones said. “Special teams we got a little bit better, but we still have to be able to flip the field a little bit in the punting game and our kickoff-return game needs some work. Offensively, we just didn’t play very well and I call the plays and that falls on me.”
The Falcons fall to 0-3 with the loss while the Silver Foxes improve to 3-0 on the season.
County Recap
The Hartsville Red Foxes won 61-20 on the road against the Camden Bulldogs improving to 3-0 on the season.