The Parklane Academy football team, looking for their third win this season, fell behind twice but scored late in the fourth quarter to defeat the Lamar Raiders 26-24.
“I’m just incredibly proud of our entire team, from the ninth graders, sophomores, juniors, and seniors,” Pioneers head coach Mike Powell said about their second consecutive win.
“At one point I think we were sitting at 1-7 in the season and they found a way over the past two weeks not to give up and not quit. I think that says a lot about the character of our players, all of them. It wasn’t an incredibly clean game, we made our fair share of mistakes but on top of that we still kept continuing to make plays to keep us in the game, we were able to score the ball when we needed to and they just kept fighting,” he said.
The Pioneers (3-7) fell behind early from a safety off a quarterback sack but managed to lead at halftime.
“We were backed up and you want to be conservative there, but we decided to throw the football and just weren’t able to protect long enough.
We kick off to them and we get the interception and it felt like we should be down 10 or 12 points. They were really stymying us on offense and the defense was playing well. I still thought we had momentum going into the half even though they had taken it to three points.”
Lamar was able to regain the lead taking their opening second half drive for a touchdown.
“It was a long drawn out drive and they ran a lot of clock,” Powell said. “That was one thing I was concerned with being down 17-13 and how many opportunities are we going to get. Cole (Smith) and, of course, the offensive line were able to dial up some really good run plays for us,” he said. “We broke a couple of long runs and were able to score. We have to be better in the kicking game. Same thing as the Copiah game trying to get those PATs and stay on schedule, but at the end of the day, I’ll take it exactly the way it was.
“I just can’t say enough about how proud I am of this team,” Powell said. “They could’ve easily shut it down and they haven’t. Lamar beat us pretty soundly last year, so I didn’t know what our mental state was going into the game. Obviously they were ready to go. They went out there and played their guts out for all four quarters and never let up.”
Senior linebacker Jace Travis returned a fumble for an 83-yard score.
The Pioneers’ first score came on 16-yard endzone grab by wideout Jack Dumas from quarterback Carr Young, both seniors.
Parklane hosts the season finale against Jackson Prep. at 7 p.m. Friday.
