Lamar defense shines brighter in win over Tigers

LAMAR — For the fourth time, the Lamar Silver Foxes attempted to succeed where they had failed three times before — to punch their ticket to Orangeburg to play for the Class A Division I state football championship.

Hemingway and its defense made it anything but easy Friday night.

Instead of folding, however, Lamar was able to get into the end zone once, and that was all it needed in a win where the final score looked more like a baseball game — 6-4 over the Tigers at Donald R. Poole Stadium.

The Silver Foxes will face Chesterfield, 35-21 winners over Calhoun County, at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium on the campus of South Carolina State at 3 p.m. Friday.

“At least we didn’t have to go extra innings,” Silver Foxes coach J.R. Boyd said of the low score. “Hemingway has a good defense. We also have a great defense, and we managed to get a win.”

“It’s unexplainable,” Lamar linebacker B.J. Goodson said of the victory. “We treat each other like family and stuck together through tough times.”

Lamar’s only score came on a 10-yard touchdown pass from Trevor Norris that was deflected and landed in the arms of Chris Peoples. Norris finished with 147 yards passing and an interception.

“Both teams gave 100 percent out there,” Norris said. “Can’t ask for anything better than that.”

“It feels great for the kids,” Boyd said. “I knew if our offensive line came through, our quarterback and receivers could get the job done.”

But with Lamar (12-1) leading 6-2, Norris snapped the ball over punter Eric Daney’s head for the second time in the contest, and Hemingway took over at the Silver Foxes 23-yard line with 2:18 left in the fourth quarter.

But as they had all night, the Silver Foxes stepped up. Jabril Solomon pulled in a Justin Pressley pass, but was stripped of the football. Lamar pounced on the football for Hemingway’s sixth turnover of the game.

“Before the game, what was going through my head was put up or go home,” Dargan said. “I saw what (the Tigers) were doing, and I just attacked.”

The Tigers had trouble getting any yards against Lamar’s defense. Leading rusher LaMichael Pushia was held to just 58 yards on 21 carries, well below his season average.

Justin Pressley went 3-for-8 passing for 26 yards with two interceptions, both to Jerrod Dargan in Lamar territory.

“We couldn’t get anything accomplished on offense,” said Hemingway coach Ken Cribb, whose Tigers finish the season 11-2. “We blew some golden opportunities to win this game with turnovers.”

“We just played hard on both sides of the ball,” Norris said. “But our defense refused to give Hemingway anything.”

After another safety cut the deficit to 6-4, Hemingway had one more chance to pull out the win with 18 seconds left. But Goodson played the role of closer, sacking Pressley at the Lamar 46 as time expired to dash Hemingway’s hopes and send the Lamar faithful racing onto the field.

“I’m really proud of my kids and their effort,” Cribb said. “We had every chance to win this game, but we made too many mistakes.”

“All the credit goes to our coaches,” Goodson said. “All the talk was that Hemingway had the No. 1 defense. Our coaches put in our heads that we had the No. 1 defense, and we showed it tonight.”