By Heath Walley
One defensive stand.
That’s all head coach Darius Dear’s Heidelberg Oilers needed to close the door on Lumberton Friday night in what ended up looking like a swampy mess in Heidelberg.
And, boy, was it a big stand.
Leading 20-18 with 4:06 left in the game, Heidelberg fumbled deep in its own territory at the 8-yard line. Lumberton quarterback Jarod Tribett moved the Panthers as far as the 6-yard line on a third down run, but cramped badly following the play and had to exit the game. On fourth down, the Oilers stuffed a direct snap run up the middle. Dear’s squad, with 2:48 left, then bogged out four first downs and eventually kneeled on the football to earn a 20-18 victory.
“Our guys practiced hard all week. Defensively, we’ve been on them all week. Down the stretch, we saw them (Lumberton) wearing down,” said Dear of the defensive effort late in the fourth quarter. “I was confident that we were going to stop them, because they didn’t really have any success in the second half running the ball. We just decided to take their receivers away from them on that play and make them beat us with a running back, and it worked.”
Heidelberg trailed early in the first quarter after being forced to punt on the opening drive of the contest. Lumberton drove quickly from its own 38-yard line, and Tribett found a leaping Rickey Thomas in the corner of the endzone for the game’s first score. A 2-point conversion attempt was snuffed out by the Oilers, and the Panthers held a 6-0 advantage with 8:38 left in the first.
Later in the opening quarter, Heidelberg drove all the way to the Lumberton 8-yard line, but fumbled the ball away to Lumberton. The Panthers weren’t able to capitalize on the blunder, and ten plays later and into the second quarter, Heidelberg quarterback Dontavios Porter busted up the gut and reeled off a 67-yard touchdown run to put the Oilers’ first points on the scoreboard. Lumberton halted a 2-point conversion attempt, and the score was knotted 6-6 with 10:13 before the half.
On the ensuing Heidelberg offensive series, Lumberton forced another fumble deep in Oilers territory and was, this time, able to make good on the loose ball recovery. Following the fumble, Tribett tossed his second touchdown of the evening, this time a 30-yard strike to Donnell Buckner with 6:58 remaining in the half. Another Panthers 2-point conversion attempt failed, but Lumberton led 12-6.
The Oilers bounced back two series later after forcing a punt. From Heidelberg’s 34-yard line, Porter completed a 14-yard pass to Tyrese Cooley to spark the drive to midfield. Braxton King then scooted through the Lumberton secondary on a run to the Panthers’ 32. Three plays later, Porter blasted through the Lumberton defense on a 30-yard touchdown scamper. A 2-point conversion attempt failed, and the game for the second time was tied, this time 12-12.
The two teams battled scoreless through the muddy elements through the third quarter, but Porter broke the stalemate at the 9:16 mark in the fourth when he ripped off another 30-yard touchdown run. Porter then barreled into the endzone for a 2-point conversion, and the Oilers held its first lead of the game 20-18.
Later in the fourth Lumberton’s Buckner set the Panthers up with good field position after returning a punt to Heidelberg’s 30. Five plays into the offensive series, Tribett landed his third touchdown pass of the night into the arms of Thomas. Yet another 2-point conversion attempt was foiled by the Oilers, and Heidelberg held clung to a 20-18 advantage with 5:39 left in the game.
The Oilers were then forced deep into its own territory on a penalty, fumbled the football away at the 8-yard line, and had the biggest defensive stand the Heidelberg faithful have seen this season so far when they shut down the Panthers on four scoring attempts inside the 8-yard line.
Dear said that he was pleased with his team’s effort, but knows there are some areas of improvement.
“We are going to get in here Monday and do some ball security drills. We are going to scout some film and work on the small things,” he said. “Tonight, putting the ball on the ground was a problem, but I really think we ran the ball well the whole game. There were just a couple fumbles and the scoreboard that didn’t show how good we played tonight I think.”
Heidelberg (2-1) will host Wilkinson County (1-1) next Friday night.
Lumberton (2-1) will host Franklin County (3-0).
