Late fumble return gives Lamar win over Darlington

DARLINGTON — The Darlington Falcons had the best of all possible scenarios late in the fourth quarter of their game against Lamar.

The Falcons had the lead, the ball deep in Lamar territory and the Silver Foxes were out of timeouts.

All that changed in one play. Chris Peoples’ 85-yard fumble return turned almost certain defeat into a 27-24 Lamar victory at Falcon Field on Friday night.

“We knew it was going to be tough (coming into Falcon Field),” Lamar coach J.R. Boyd said. “We told the guys to hang in there and we can win it.”

With the ball on Lamar’s 26-yard line and just under four minutes to play in the fourth, Darlington’s Clinton McPhail burst through a huge hole on the way to a potential game-sealing first down. But the senior running back was stripped on the play, and Peoples came away his team’s hero.

“We made some adjustments on defense. (The Falcons) were hurting us all night with the run,” Boyd said. “We shifted one guy, and (Peoples) was the one who picked the ball up and ran it in.”

“It’s heartbreaking,” Darlington coach Justin Danner said. “I told the kids if it didn’t hurt, then it didn’t mean anything. It just wasn’t in the cards for us tonight.”

Leading 17-13 in the third quarter, Darlington’s defense came up huge to snuff out a Lamar scoring drive. Peter Ramirez picked off a Trevor Norris pass and raced 59 yards to the Lamar 31.

The Falcons (1-2) capitalized six plays later when Dominique Cooper powered his way to paydirt from the 4. Darlington had a 24-13 lead with 4:13 left in the period.

But the Silver Foxes weren’t done. On fourth and 7 from the Falcon 32, Norris lofted a prayer of a pass that was tipped but landed in the arms of Anthony McAllister at the 1.

“(Darlington) had been biting on the screen pass, so we ran the out,” Boyd said. “The ball was tipped but (McAllister) stayed with it.”

Jerrod Dargan scored on the next play. The two-point conversion was good, and Lamar (3-1) sliced the deficit to 24-21 with 11:31 left in the fourth.

Cooper rushed for 125 yards on 15 carries with a touchdown to lead the Falcons. McPhail followed with 121 yards rushing and one score.

“The key to this game was ball security,” said Danner, whose team lost four fumbles. “We didn’t take care of the football and it hurt us at some crucial times.”

Lamar heads to Marion next Friday, while Darlington hosts West Florence. Both games kick off at 7:30 p.m.