MONTICELLO – The Florence Eagles ended Lawrence County’sCinderella football season Friday night, beating the Cougars 23-20in the opening round of the Class 4A playoffs. Florence used a bitof trickery, risk-taking and a time-consuming, ball-control offenseto break Lawrence County’s five-game winning streak and send theCougars home.

With the win, Florence improved to 7-4 on the season. SteveJones’ Eagles advance to the second round of the playoffs in whichthey will play host to Northeast Jones. Lawrence County, underfirst-year head coach Trent Hammond ended the season at 9-2.

“I’m awfully proud of our kids and the season we had,” Hammondsaid. “Not many people expected that much from this team. At thesame time, when you have some success, your get greedy and you wantand expect to win them all. This hurts right now but it doesn’ttake away from our season. I’m so proud of our kids.”

Florence scored on a 62-yard run by quarterback Jason Thomas onthe first play of the game. It came on a trick play as Cougardefenders didn’t realize the football was in play and watched asThomas raced around the right end for a touchdown.

Florence gambled frequently, going for it twice on fourth downand attempting a fake punt. The fake punt didn’t work and it set upa Lawrence County scoring drive. Almost everything else wentFlorence’s way on this night.

“We felt like we had to take some chances to do some things outof the ordinary,” Jones explained.

Trickery and gambles aside, it was the Eagles’ ball-controloffense and stubborn defense that ultimately earned the win.Florence got behind a massive offensive line and while LawrenceCounty actually outgained Florence in total offense, the Eaglesmanaged to drive the ball and eat up huge chunks of time.

“I take my hat off to Florence,” Coach Hammond said. “We’re verysmall up front and we’ve known all season that we were vulnerableif some great big team tried to just line up and ram it down ourthroats. Our defense played hard and played well but it was to keepthem from getting 10 yards on four plays.”

And while Lawrence County outgained Florence 300-256 in totaloffense, nothing came easily for the Cougars, who had to work hardto earn every first down and score.

“We certainly didn’t dominate the line of scrimmage like we hadin some games,” said long-time Lawrence County offensive line coachCraig Davis. “I’ll take the blame for that, but I’ll give a lot ofcredit to Florence, too. Along with South Pike, that was the bestdefensive team by far that anyone’s played against us thisyear.”

After Florence took a 7-0 lead on that first play, the Cougar’sfirst possession was thwarted by a holding call. After a MarlonStanfield punt, the Eagles took off on a more conventional drive.They drove 30 yards in 13 plays using up a full six minutes ofclock time in the process. That set up a Chance Johnson 32-yardfield goal which gave Florence a 10-0 first-quarter lead.

Lawrence County battled back with a good drive of its own, goingall the way from the Cougars’ own 24 to the Eagles’ 11. Aquarterback sack, only the second the Cougars gave up this season,halted that threat. Minutes later, Florence tried another bit oftrickery, throwing a fake punt pass that came up just short. Thatgave the Cougars good field position and Lawrence County tookadvantage of it.

In eight straight running plays, the Cougars drove 49 yards fora touchdown. It came on Wayne Hardy’s nine-yard run which cut theFlorence lead to 10-7.

A Cougar fumble late in the half gave Florence a chance to addto its lead but Johnson’s 39-yard field goal attempt sailed wideright.

Midway through the third quarter, after another long, drawn-outdrive, Florence’s Cory Jones ran 39 yards to put the Eagles up,17-7.

Lawrence County wasn’t done yet. The Cougars ran it right backdown the field on three straight Hardy rushes. The third was aspectacular 41-yarder around the left end, one for Hardy’salready-lengthy highlight films. Jonathan Eley’s PAT kick cut thelead to 17-14.

Unfortunately for the Cougars, Florence’s offense rose to theoccasion. Taking advantage of three Lawrence County penalties,Florence drove it back down the field for the decisive score. Itcame on a Heath Clark one-yard run which upped the Florence lead to23-14. That came on the first play of the fourth quarter.

The Cougars turned the ball over on downs on their nextpossession as two pass attempts resulted in near misses. The LCHSdefense forced a punt, giving the Cougars another shot at gettingback in the game. This time, the offense came through, withquarterback Casey Williams completing passes for 24 and 28 yards.The completions set up Hardy’s five-yard touchdown run which cutthe margin to 23-20.

After an unsuccessful onside kickoff, the Cougar defense camethrough again, forcing a Florence punt. The Cougars were unable tomove and Florence kneeled away the final seconds to advance to thisFriday’s second round.

In closing out his first season as Lawrence County’s head coach,Hammond praised his seniors and at the same time heaped praise onthe team that eliminated his Cougars.

“I’d just like to publicly thank our seniors, Hammond said, “andtell them how much I appreciate what they’ve done here. They werepart of the championship team as sophomores, suffered through a bitof a dropoff last year, and most everybody expected us to fallright off the table this season. They refused to let that happen.They contributed to a lot of W’s in their careers.

“I’d also like to congratulate Florence on its fine season,” headded. “Not only did they play a great football game, they’re atop-notch, classy bunch. We wish them all the best.”