‘Proud of how they fought’: Arlington Lamar bests South Grand Prairie in season finale

ARLINGTON – Arlington Lamar won but it wasn’t enough. And that made the Vikings feel like they lost.

South Grand Prairie didn’t win but did in the long run.

To clarify, Lamar needed to win by at least 15 points to earn a spot in the playoffs. As it was, the Vikings (4-6, 3-3 in District 8-6A) won 24-17 at Cravens Field Thursday night to celebrate their homecoming. And it came down to a final drive for another potential touchdown that, with a successful 2-point conversion, would have met the requirements for a playoff berth. They came up just short.

With 3:35 left, Lamar started at its’ 23-yard line after forcing a punt. They moved to the 5-yard line in 14 plays with one second left. With quarterback Gannon Carey in shotgun formation, there was an errant snap and, in desperation, he threw an interception into the end zone to Ahmad Jenkins.

SCP Coach Laban DeLay commended his worthy opponent.

“They (Vikings) played terrific,” DeLay said. “Our first half, we played very poorly. We came out in the second half with some excitement and spirit and fought hard and got us back into the game. And then it came down to the wire.”

DeLay said he was not surprised.

“But that’s what I expected of them,” he continued. “They’re a well-coached team. They do a really good job, and the kids played hard.”

Senior inside linebacker Leo Morris had a pair of interceptions in addition to the final one by Jenkins. The latter, DeLay noted, is a senior safety and one of the captains.

“That’s what he does – makes plays for us,” said DeLay. “The defense came through big whenever it needed to. The offense got us back in the game in the third quarter. It’s hard to single out just one kid, but there’s several that were stars for us tonight.”

Indeed, to open the second half, the Warriors drove 64 yards for a touchdown in just two plays as if that was the wake-up call. First, Jaden Stanley burst through for 41 yards to the Lamar 23-yard line.

It was the longest play from scrimmage by either team for the night. Then Josiah Lucas took it the rest of the way up the middle to make it 17-14, Lamar, only half a minute into the second half.

All of the touchdown drives by both teams were 60-odd yards long.

The Lamar defense settled back down again after that. Both teams squandered scoring opportunities. One by SGP came late in the third stanza.

An attempted first-down conversion on a fake punt by Lamar set SGP in business at the Lamar 15-yard line, but three plays netted only five yards. The Warriors had to settle for a 27-yard field goal by Andrew Rueda.

Nevertheless, it tied the score at 17 and kept the outcome in suspense going into the fourth quarter.

A 1-yard scoring run by Deante Gentry, his second touchdown of the game, with 9:47 left made the difference. It came at the end of an 11-play, 61-yard drive.

The Vikings would get the ball twice more after forcing SGP to punt as many times, but could not get the requisite eight additional points to extend their season into the playoffs.

“All I know is I’m proud of our kids,” said Lamar Coach Billy Skinner. “I’m proud of our community. I’m proud of how they fought this year. They gave us everything we asked of them, and they did it. I appreciate them. I love them. Congratulations to SGP. Good luck to those guys.”

Lamar took the opening kickoff and drove 62-yards in 11 plays with Gentry getting the last 15 for a 7-0 Lamar lead. Gentry finished with 102 yards on 25 carries and two touchdowns.

Lamar pushed it to 14-0 two possessions later early in the second quarter with a 14-yard pass from Carey to Trenton Yancey. It was typical of many of Carey’s throws, short swing passes in the flats or even behind the line of scrimmage that receiver took down the sideline sometimes with interference on a screen setup. Lamar did this a lot.

Carey, a junior, finished with 253 yards on 32 completions out of 44 attempts with three interceptions and a touchdown.

SGP finally got on the board midway in the second quarter with an 11-yard run by Stanley. The senior had a game-high 136 yards on 19 carries. It made the score 14-7, Lamar.

Lamar managed a 35-yard field goal by Robert Duncan and a 17-7 lead as time expired in the first half after some sound defense and prudent clock management. Morris made the first of his two interceptions with a diving pickoff at the Warrior 3-yard line with 1:33 left before intermission.

SGP was unable to advance the ball and punted from its’ 7. Lamar called all of its’ three timeouts after every play and got the ball after a shanked punt at the Warrior 24-yard line with 53 seconds left. The SGP defense in turn held, and Duncan came through with his field goal.

Lamar accumulated 424 yards of offense to 189 by SGP and dominated time of possession. The Vikings also had 15 more first downs, 25 to 10.