By Tony Burns
Sports Editor
SMACKOVER - Damarous White rumbled for 214 yards on 21 carries with four touchdowns Friday as Smackover pulled away for a 49-28 victory over Lamar in the first round of the 3A state playoffs. Peyton Jones added a pair of defensive scores for the Buckaroos, who improved to 7-4 and will travel to Mayflower next week.
The Warriors finished their season with a 5-6 record.
Smackover carried a 13-12 into the intermission before coming out inspired for the second half. White had 14 carries for 178 yards in the second half. But, it was the two defensive touchdowns by Jones which proved to be the difference.
Smackover coach Mike Baysinger was asked what he told his players at halftime that lifted their performance so much.
“Hey, lets come out here and finish it,” he said. “Yeah, come finish it. Let’s just come out on our field and go finish this game.”
Lamar ran 32 offensive plays in the first half to just 20 for the Bucks. In the second half, however, Smackover stopped the Warriors twice on fourth down, in addition to the two defensive scores.
“We just made a couple adjustments on some of their fullback dive stuff. And then, we just came out and ran the ball on them, picked up some blitzes and some things like that we needed to do run-wise,” Baysinger said of the halftime adjustments.
“Coach Osborne saw in the front they were putting their smaller guys to our H and bigger guys backside so we just went counter the opposite way.”
Lamar, trailing 13-12, had the ball in the third quarter but Joe Mueller was stripped with Jones picking up the fumble and racing 25 yards to the end zone.
The scoop-and-score, along with White’s 2-point run, pushed the lead to 21-12 with 8:36 left in the third.
The Warriors, known for their ground-oriented attack, had the ball near midfield before the Bucks’ Ethan Warren sacked the quarterback on third-and-12.
On fourth down, the snap went over the punter’s head and Warren tackled him at the 34-yard line.
White scored on a 34-yard run on the ensuing play, then ran for the conversion and a 29-12 lead with 6:15 left in the third.
Lamar would never recover from the 16-point barrage, which came in a span of 2:21.
To their credit, the Warriors never stopped fighting, however.
Lamar went on a 9-play drive to the Smackover 28.
But, on fourth-and-4, Jones came up big with an open-field tackle on Lamar’s Jonathan Mayes, stopping the Warriors two-yards shy of the sticks.
Two plays later, the Warriors had the ball back when Mueller intercepted a pass by Roshard Boone.
Lamar cashed this one in, driving 68-yards in eight plays.
Ike Pelts connected with Mueller on a 24-yard touchdown pass.
Pelts hit Jacob Parmenter for the 2-point conversion, cutting the lead to 29-20 with 9:14 left in the fourth.
The rest of the game was a White-Out for the Bucks.
The senior carried the ball seven times in a 9-play drive.
On third down, Boone faked a handoff on the jet sweep and gave the ball to White, who took it straight up the gut and into the end zone from 10 yards out.
White ran for the conversion and a 37-20 lead with 4:47 left in the fourth.
Baysinger said the second half strategy was simple - feed White.
“There was no doubt. He’s a heck of a runner,” he said.
“We’re fixing to feed him the rest of the playoffs.”
Lamar, finally, came out of its running formation and went to a spread.
Pelts hit Caleb Edwards for a 7-yard touchdown to cap a 45-yard drive.
Mueller ran for the conversion, trimming the deficit to 37-28 with 2:26 left in the game.
The Warriors’ ensuing onsides kick went out of bounds at midfield.
On the next play, White peeled off a 50-yard touchdown, side-stepping one defender at the line of scrimmage before making a cut and then sprinting to paydirt.
The run for two failed, leaving the margin at 43-28 with 2:12 remaining.
Jones added the final nail in Lamar’s season when he picked off Pelts’ pass at the 30 and then weaved his way 70 yards to the end zone with 1:07 left on the clock.
The kick failed and Smackover settled for a 49-28 victory.
“That’s always nice to scoop and score and then the pick six by the same kid - heck of a job,” said Baysinger.
Lamar opened the game with a 16-play drive, which chewed more than seven minutes off the clock.
Parmenter finished it off with a 4-yard touchdown run. The kick failed and the Warriors led 6-0 with 4:28 left in the first.
It was an ominous start for the Bucks, especially if Lamar could keep the ball all game.
“Well … but they didn’t. No, it was not disheartening,” Baysinger said of the Warriors’ opening drive.
“It was one of those things where you have to (tighten) up and go. Or, it was going to happen all night.”
The Bucks answered immediately with a 53-yard drive in six plays.
Boone converted a third-and-15 with a 50-yard completion to Jaqueze Modica, who came back for the ball and made the catch at the 5.
Three plays later, White bulled into the end zone from a yard out. Harley Williams kicked the extra point with 1:36 left in the first.
Lamar regained the lead on a drive that started at the 46 after a 16-yard punt.
Pelts found Mueller for a 26-yard completion before Mayes scored on a 6-yard run, giving the Warriors a 12-7 advantage with 3:08 left in the second quarter.
Smackover grabbed the lead back just before the half expired.
On fourth-and-16, Boone dropped back to pass.
Flushed to his left, he lofted a pass into the end zone to Chris Hopper, who made the catch with one foot in bounds in the back of the end zone with one second left on the clock, giving the Bucks a 13-12 halftime cushion.
Smackover finished with 261 yards rushing and 52 yards through the air on 7-of-9 passing.
Modica rushed for 65 yards and had four receptions for 47 yards.
Lamar managed 197 yards rushing and 104 yards passing on 8-of-12 attempts.