MERIDIAN — Lamar has been known for throwing the football around.
On Friday night, however, it was all about the run game.
Behind a potent rushing attack and an opportunistic defense, the Raiders got past Heritage Academy 42-20 on homecoming at Grey Cobb Field.
“When we turn the ball over, we don’t win games, but their turnovers in the first quarter and us capitalizing and executing was big for us,” said Lamar School coach Jacob Land. “We got up early on them and that shocked them. Heritage has a really good team and a really good offense, but I’m proud of our guys for just battling, working hard and it pays off.”
Lamar scored on the opening drive of the game on fourth down as Kellan Kellery raced 47 yards to the end zone to give the Raiders a 7-0 lead with 9:33 left in the first quarter.
After Heritage fumbled on their first offensive play of the game, Tyler Brown rumbled into the end zone from 10 yards out to extend the Raider lead to 14-0 with seven minutes left.
The Patriots again fumbled on the first play of their next possession and Lamar capitalized as Wyatt Bond found Sullivan Reed on a 9-yard touchdown pass to give the Raiders a 21-0 lead with 4:04 left.
Heritage got on the board as Adyn Westmoreland intercepted a Bond pass and raced 70 yards to the end zone to cut the Lamar lead to 21-7 with 9:42 left in the second quarter.
Lamar responded as Kellery scored on a 12-yard run to stretch the lead out to 28-7 with nine minutes left in the second quarter.
The Raiders extended their lead to 35-7 on an Ashton Jones 15-yard run with 8:33 left in the third quarter.
Thompson Regimbal tossed touchdown passes on back-to-back drives for Heritage to cut the Lamar lead to 35-20. His first touchdown pass went 12 yards to Xzavier Webber and the other a 20-yard pass to Charlie Fowler.
Kellery scored on a 1-yard for Lamar to extend the lead to 42-20 with 3:53 left in the fourth quarter after Heritage fumbled on a punt.
The Raiders (3-3) had 245 yards rushing on the night
“Running the ball is something we’ve heard a bunch from a lot from people. We heard on a livestream at a junior high game that we couldn’t run the ball and that we were soft up front and couldn’t run the ball,” Land said. “Our guys on the offensive line took that personally and we ran the ball well tonight.”
Bond finished the 10-of-17 passing for 112 yards with a touchdown and 57 yards rushing on 14 carries, while Jones had 84 yards rushing on 16 carries.
Thompson finished 13-of-32 passing for 162 yards and two touchdowns to lead Heritage Academy. The Patriots (5-2) had their five-game winning streak come to an end.
“We got off to a slow start, but give credit to Lamar, they’re a really good team and a great game plan tonight,” said Heritage Academy coach Tobias Smith. “They out-executed us, and when you’re down 21-0 it is hard to dig yourself out of it, so we will learn from this.”
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