MONTICELLO – The Lawrence County Cougars defeated the South PikeEagles in Division 6-4A football action Friday night, taking alarge step forward in the Division 6-4A race.

MONTICELLO – The Lawrence County Cougars defeated the South PikeEagles in Division 6-4A football action Friday night, taking alarge step forward in the Division 6-4A race. The Cougars jumpedout to a 12-0 halftime lead and then rode an outstanding defensiveeffort to the victory; that was aided by a plodding, ball-controloffense.

With the win, LCHS head coach Danny Adams and his Cougarsimproved to 3-2 overall, and 1-0 in division play. The victorygives LCHS an early foothold in the battle royal for one of thedivision’s two playoff spots. South Pike, a perennial powerhouseand 4A contender, fell to 2-3 overall and 0-1 in the division.

The Cougars employed the old 3-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust methodoffensively. LCHS rushed an incredible 64 times for 273 yards inthe game. Even more incredibly was the fact that Lawrence Countymaintained ball possession for more than 35 minutes of the48-minute game. That, coupled with what was easily the Cougars’best defensive effort of the year, added up to a formula forvictory that pleased the Cougar’s head coach.

“Our defense played great,” said Adams. “It was by far our bestdefensive game of the season. They came up big in a big game.

“Offensively, we didn’t do a great job, but we were able to keepthe ball most of the game, and that kept their offense off thefield.”

It didn’t take long for the Lawrence County defense to startcoming up big. On the second play from scrimmage, the Cougars’Mathew Aultman recovered a South Pike fumble, setting LCHS up atthe Eagle 26. After one first down, however, the Cougars werestymied, and ended up missing a field goal attempt.

Midway through the first quarter, Lawrence County’s EskriaRhodes recovered another Eagle fumble. This time, the Cougars tookfull advantage. LCHS embarked on a 70-yard, 15-play, odyssey thatresulted in Johnathan Eley’s 3-yard touchdown plunge. Eley missedthe extra point, but the Cougars led 6-0.

After the Lawrence County defense forced a South Pike punt, theCougars took off on another long journey. This time, LawrenceCounty went 75 yards in 13 plays, 12 of those coming on the ground.Eley ended the drive with a bruising 20-yard touchdown run. TheCougars’ season-long conversion woes continued as a two-pointattempt failed. LCHS led 12-0.

South Pike threatened just before the intermission, but a JasonSnell pass interception ended the threat and preserved LawrenceCounty’s advantage.

LCHS never scored in the second half, but the Cougars moved theball on the ground and maintained possession seemingly forever. TwoCougar drives in the third quarter netted no points-points thatcould have put the game away-but Lawrence County did chew up 10 andone-half minutes of clock in the 12-minute period.

South Pike did come back to make a game of it. With over eightminutes to play in the game, Terry Dickerson scored on a 15-yardrun. Andrez Aguilar’s kick cut Lawrence County’s lead to 12-7.

With the game and perhaps the season on the line, the Cougars’offense ground out another time-consuming march, running 7 minutesoff the scoreboard with 12 straight running plays. In that drive, atouchdown which would have clinched the win was brought back by aphantom holding penalty that kept South Pike in the hunt.

After Pete Barham’s punt bounced into the end zone, South Pikehad one last chance, starting from its own 20 with 1:30 toplay.

As had been the case all night, the Lawrence County defense cameup big. South Pike got as far as midfield, but the Eagle hopesended when Snell broke up the game’s final pass as time expired.With its banner effort, the LCHS defense held powerful South Piketo 204 total yards and produced 4 takeaways. Aultman had two fumblerecoveries and Eskria Rhodes one, along with Snell’sinterception.

Lawrence County will get a one-week break from the divisionwars. The Cougars host Greenville’s T.L. Weston on Friday night.After that, LCHS will wrap up the regular season with four straightdivision contests.