Lamar squeaks by Darlington again, 26-24

It felt like a playoff game, and played like a playoff game, but mostly felt like two county rivals going at it with everything they had for four quarters. That’s exactly what happened in Lamar Friday night, as the Silver Foxes slipped past Darlington 26-24 in dramatic fashion.

“It was a great victory,” Lamar Coach J.R. Boyd said afterward. “We knew they would be fired up, being a county rival.”

The game played out very differently for the two offenses, as Darlington mostly featured the run via Dominique Cooper (18 carries for 185 yards, 2 TDs) while the Silver Foxes aired it out, with quarterback Trevor Norris putting up Dan Marino-type numbers, completing 28 of 43 passes for 423 yards with 3 TDs. For Norris, the ball was well distributed, but Matthew Mitchell led the pack, snagging nine balls for 151 yards, including the three TDs.

“Trevor did a great job hitting the open receiver,” said Boyd.

Lamar’s Mitchell started off scoring with 4:11 to go in the first period to make it 6-0, and following a Darlington fumble the next series Lamar would make it 12-0 on 12 yard pass from Norris, again to Mitchell, with 22 seconds left in the first.

Darlington’s Ray Early would boot a field goal before halftime to make it 12-3 at the intermission.
Darlington would open the second half strong with its running game, making it 12-10 Lamar with 8:48 to go in the third period. Immediately following a Lamar interception with 3:31 to go in the third, Norris would again hit Mitchell in the endzone for 25 yards to make it 20-10 following a two-point conversion.

But on the following drive Darlington’s Dominique Cooper, with 2:40 to go in the third frame, would show powerful running highlighted by a touchdown run that featured numerous broken tackles. Following by another quick touchdown by Darlington, it suddenly was 24-20 Falcons with 11:12 to go.

With the lead and a strong running game, Darlington looked in control until Lamar’s Anthony McAllister snatched a pass from Falcon quarterback Damien Dubose at the Falcon 38-yard line.

After Norris would surge forward to pick up a first on a 4th-and-1 to the Darlington 2-yard line, Jerel Humbert would rush it in to give Lamar a 26-24 lead with 5:23 left to go. With the two-point conversion no good, Darlington would then go back to work on the ground, a strategy killed by a holding penalty. Cramps forced a change at center that contributed to bad snaps on the final two plays of that last drive.
Lamar would take over on downs and run out the clock. It was the second straight year Lamar pulled out a victory against Darlington in the final seconds.

Afterward, Boyd said his team needed to finish off their opponents when the opportunities arose, and the failure to do so cost them the past two weeks. As the second half progressed, Darlington’s running game looked almost unstoppable at times.

“Tackling was an issue, we had people there at times and just didn’t make the tackles,” Boyd said. “At the end the defense had to turn it up a notch, and they did.”

Afterward, Darlington Coach Justin Danner said though his team was 0-3, they had proven they could challenge teams like Lamar and had learned important lessons for region play. Darlington’s defense had made many of the plays it needed to for most of the contest, stopping Lamar on fourth downs four times inside the red zone.

“I thought we fought hard to make breaks tonight, and in the end it didn’t go our way,” he said.
One regret: the team didn’t pick up enough yards on its last ditch drive to give kicker Ray Early a chance to show off his game-changing range.

Next up, Lamar plays Marion 7:30 p.m. Friday at home, and Darlington travels to West Florence Friday for a 7:30 p.m. start.