MONTICELLO — The Lawrence County Cougars roared to a convincing49-7 victory over the Mendenhall Tigers in first-round Class 4Astate playoff action Friday night at Cougar Field. Six differentCougars rushed for touchdowns as LCHS piled up 373 rushing yards,and 387 yards of total offense.

So dominant were the Cougars that Lawrence County scoredtouchdowns each time it had the football, except for 2 possessionsthat ended halves.

While the Lawrence County offense was having a fine time of it,the LCHS defense was more than holding its own, limiting Mendenhallto just 115 yards and 1 late touchdown, while picking off 3 Tigerpasses.

With the win, Lawrence County advances to the second round witha record of 8-4 on the season. The Cougars won the Region 7-4Achampionship, going 5-0 in the division. Mendenhall, the fourthplace team from Region 6-4A, finished the season at 3-9. The Tigersare coached by Chris Peterson.

“I thought we had a good night,” said sixth-year Lawrence Countycoach Mike Davis. “This game concerned us, because Mendenhalllooked better than their record, on film. Our kids took it to them,though. I thought we controlled the line of scrimmage bothoffensively and defensively.”

The win moved Lawrence County into the second round of theplayoffs. The Cougars will host Laurel which defeated Purvis 31-24Friday to earn a date with the Cougars.

“We’re just happy to still be playing,” Davis said. “We’ll takea look at Laurel (on film) this weekend, and put in a good week ofwork. We didn’t really have a preference on who we play. It’s justgreat to be playing into mid-November.”

Lawrence County advanced behind a relentless rushing attack thattotally overwhelmed the Mendenhall defense. Four different Cougarsrushed for 68 yards or more, and 6 of them scored touchdowns. On 5of the Cougar’s 7 touchdown drives, Lawrence County never evenfaced a third down situation,

Lawrence County only had the football for 3 plays in the entirefirst quarter, but that was enough to net the Cougars a 7-0 lead.Josh Cameron scored on a 51-yard touchdown run, and Trevor Haviskicked the first of his 6 straight extra points.

Early in the second quarter, Cougar linebacker Nicholas McDonaldintercepted an Arlandas Johnson pass and returned it 25 yards,setting up a 27-yard touchdown run by Alexander Montgomery. It was14-0.

Mendenhall went three-and-out on its next two possessions,resulting in touchdowns runs by senior wingback Matthew Wells andsophomore fullback William Turnage. That made it 28-0. Wellsintercepted a Mendenhall pass near the end of the first half, butthe Tigers were able to avoid further damage.

Lawrence County took the second half kickoff and promptly droveright down the field, scoring on Havis’ 1-yard run. Mendenhall’sonly scoring drive came next, largely on the strength of theJohnson-to-Calvin Williams pass combination. Williams hauled in a13-yard scoring toss. For the night, Williams caught 7 passes for108 yards, providing most of the Tiger offense.

LCHS responded quickly. After a nice kickoff return by Wells,and a 14-yard pass from Adam Watson to Jamie McCardle, Turnagescored his second touchdown of the night on a nifty 27-yardrun.

Following a Trevor Havis pass interception, senior fullback BenArmstrong became the sixth Cougar rusher to score a touchdowns, ona 4-yard run. Logan Berard kicked the Cougars’ final extrapoint.

“Obviously, I was pleased with the play of our front-liners,”Coach Davis said, “but in the latter part of the game, I was happywith the way our less experience players got out there and competedagainst a lot of their first-teamers. That’s encouraging.”