With Lamar School trailing by three points late in the second quarter, and already having watched his team turn the ball over four times to go along with a blocked punt, Raiders’ head coach Jacob Land was cool with just running out the clock before halftime.
“The first half was not ideal for us . . . at that point I was thinking let’s run the clock out and get out of this thing before there was any more damage done,” he said.
Lo and behold, a few plays later, not only did Lamar do some damage control, it inflicted some damage of its own as quarterback Wyatt Bond connected with freshman Sullivan Reed on momentum-changing 27-yard touchdown pass with four seconds on the clock. So, instead of taking a 10-7 lead into halftime, Heritage went into intermission trailing 14-10.
In a game full of big plays, that was no doubt the biggest. Not only did it take the wind out of the Patriots’ collective sails, it catapulted the Raiders to a 35-17 road victory at C.L. Mitchell Field.
“That play was massive!” Land said.
Said first-year Heritage coach Tobias Smith: “That was a really big play, no doubt. “It was a huge momentum swing. They made the play and we didn’t. That’s kind of been the story of our season so far.”
Lamar, coming off a homecoming win over MAIS Class 6A Jackson Academy last week, improved to 5-1 despite five turnovers. The Raiders have won five straight since a season-opening overtime loss to Starkville Academy and nine of their last 11 dating back to last season. Heritage remains winless, dropping to 0-6. The Patriots have now lost as many games this season as they did the previous three seasons combined.
Even a new, freshly-painted Patriots’ head logo near midfield wasn’t enough to change Heritage’s fortunes on this night. As has been the case most of this season, the Patriots looked good at times and made some big plays of their own and once again were highly-competitive. However, they didn’t have enough in the tank to escape victorious.
Sadly, it has been a recurring theme. Just same song, different verse.
“I love my guys, and I love the way they continue to fight, we’ve just got to keep at it,” Smith said. “We say this every day at practice, every Friday, if you watch us practice or watch us play you wouldn’t think that we are a winless team. That’s a testament to these guys and the fight they bring at practice and in games. We practice just as hard now as we did all the way back on the first day of practice. I commend these guys, they keep coming to work. We’ve just got to continue getting better at it.”
A blocked punt early in the third quarter led to Lamar’s third touchdown, a 1-yard jet sweep toss pass from Bond to Tripp Morrow to extend the Raiders’ lead to 21-10. Heritage answered in the waning seconds of the third quarter, pulling to within four points, 21-17, on a 49-yard touchdown pass from Thompson Regimbal to Xzavier Webber.
Lamar then committed its fifth turnover of the night - fourth fumble - early in the fourth quarter, setting up Heritage at the Raiders’ 30-yard line. However, the Patriots gave the ball right back to Lamar on the very next play as Regimbal was picked off by Cooper Gordy.
“That was a huge play, too,” Smith said. “There again, their guy made a big play.”
Bond and Morrow would hook up once again, this time on a 21-yard scoring play for a 28-17 lead. Then, for good measure, Bond once again connected with Reed on a 15-yard touchdown pass to make it 35-17 with just over three minutes left.
Webber also caught a 65-yard touchdown pass from Charlie Fowler late in the first quarter for an early 7-0 lead for Heritage. Lamar tied it a 7-7 early in the second quarter before Fowler booted a 22-yard field goal for a 10-7 Patriots’ lead.
Opponents have outscored Heritage 107-27 in the second half this season (56-14 in the third, 51-13 in the fourth. In the last three games, the Patriots led Pillow 13-0 early only to be outscored 28-7 the rest of the way; led Leake 27-13 at halftime before being outscored 25-6 the rest of the way; and led Lamar 10-7 just before half Friday before being outscored 28-7 from that point on.
“They had a really good game plan defensively,” Land said. “No. 71 (Radarron Leech) is a load. We couldn’t block him. We tried double-teaming him at times and still couldn’t block him. I’ll say this, Heritage is better than 0-6. They could easily be 3-3. Coach Smith and his staff have their kids playing hard. They gave us a really good game tonight. They’ve got some talent, they’re close. Eventually they’re going to break through and win one.”
Lamar finished with 365 yards total offense - 185 rushing, 180 passing. Running back Jaeden Jones had 22 carries for 161 yards and one touchdown. Heritage totaled 241 total yards - 213 passing, 28 rushing. Webber finished with a team-high five catches for 137 yards and two touchdowns.