Lamar Falls Short to Andrew Jackson
By Don Gearhart
On a pleasant evening, the Andrew Jackson Volunteers from Kershaw trekked to Lamar for Friday Night Lights. The first half was marred by thirteen penalties combined by both teams and no real threat of scoring occurred until 3:13 left in the first half. Travion Mcphail scampered eight yards to put Lamar ahead and Grayson Booth punctuated the score with a point-after kick to make the score 7-0 in favor of the Silver Foxes.
It appeared that the score would remain the same at the break but a 34-yard pass by the Volunteers put the visitors close with just twenty seconds left on the scoreboard clock. A failed PAT kick left the score 7-6 in favor of Lamar.
Andrew Jackson received the second half kickoff and methodically ran the ball to paydirt at the 10:24 mark of the third quarter. The attempt to score two points on the PAT failed however but the Volunteers took a 12-7 lead.
Lamar could not sustain any offense and Andrew Jackson scored again with 4:38 left in the period on a 22-yard pass play. This time the PAT kick was good and the Volunteers had a 19-7 lead. Lamar did not throw in the towel and closed the gap with 0:23 seconds left when Tyler McManus plunged into the endzone for a 1-yard score. Booth’s kick split the uprights to close the gap to 19-14.
The Silver Foxes had a chance to take the lead when they drove the field and had a first-and-goal at the 10-yard line. On the first down play, the pass was intercepted and the threat was thwarted. Lamar had another chance with 1:37 left in the game but a pass interception by the Volunteers ended up as a pick-six to expand the difference in the score to 26-14 after the PAT was not successful.
Lamar was led by Daveon Martin who had 101 yards rushing on 18 attempts and covered another 109 yards receiving on five catches. McManus ran for 61 yards on 11 carries and was 11-37 passing for 230 yards but also threw three interceptions. Tavis Dolford made the most of his two receptions for 62 yards.
Next up for the Silver Foxes is a home matchup against McBee.
