Lamar beats Lewisville 48-27 to win Class A upper state title

Lamar --  The football teams from Lamar and Lewisville high schools met at the end of October with the Region 2-Class A title on the line. Lamar jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the second quarter and held on for a 20-14 triumph.

The two teams met again on Friday – four weeks later – and this time the upper state title and a trip to the state championship game were at stake. The Silver Foxes again jumped on top early, this time by an even greater margin, scoring the first 27 points. The Lions did their best to make it interesting but couldn’t overcome the deficit as Lamar went on to a 48-27 triumph at Donald R. Poole Stadium.

That means the Silver Foxes will be taking on lower state champion Bamberg-Ehrhardt for the state crown on Friday, December 5, beginning at 4 p.m. at South Carolina State’s Oliver C. Dawson Stadium in Orangeburg. B-E defeated Cross 29-26.

Lamar, which improved to 12-2 on the season in its first year under head coach Tyler Boyd, will be playing in its first state championship game since 2018 and looking for its first crown since ’17. Boyd is the son of J.R. Boyd, who led the Foxes to three straight titles from 2002-04, so he knows what this means.

“Football meant everything to me, too much probably, growing up here and everything,” Tyler Boyd said. “It means so much to the community. You can tell by the turnout tonight. It means a lot.”

Boyd was coaching against another offspring of a coaching legend in the Lions’ Trent Usher. His father, Al Usher, led Central to a pair of AA state titles and six title game appearances over an 11-year stretch from 1987-97. Lewisville, which was in the upper state title game for the second straight season, finished with a 9-5 record.

Trent Usher said he would have liked the Lions’ chances if you had told him they were going to put up 27 points.

“Like I said, you can’t dig yourself a hole early,” said Usher, who is in his second year as Lewisville’s head coach. “We wanted to run the football, but when you get down like that you’ve got to throw the football.”

The Lions received the opening kickoff, but on the first offensive play of the game junior quarterback Jaylin Culp was intercepted by junior linebacker DeChayzar Green. That set the Foxes up with a short field and they capitalized as senior quarterback Zori Pierce scored from one yard out on fourth down and goal. Senior placekicker Isaiah Chacon added the extra point to make it 7-0.

Lewisville moved to just shy of midfield following the ensuing kickoff. It was facing fourth and one yard to go from its 49 when it decided to go for it and was stopped short. Three plays later, Lamar found itself facing fourth and one at the 40. Pierce, who has been selected to play in the Touchstone Energy Cooperatives Bowl all-star game, kept it, broke through the initial resistance and raced to the end zone to make it 14-0 wit 4:08 remaining in the first quarter.

Lewisville was three downs and out on its next possession, but the punt had the Foxes starting at their 15. However, they responded with a 14-play drive that ended with a 28-yard TD run by Pierce to make it 21-0 with 8:51 left in the second quarter.

“To get that big lead was big because they came back on us last time, they came back on Abbeville (trailing the defending state champion 28-14 entering the fourth quarter of their second-round game before winning 29-28),” Boyd said. ”They’re a second-half team. In the playoffs we’ve had a really good first half every week, second half not so much. So we needed to jump on them.”

The Silver Foxes got another short field when Culp was intercepted by junior defensive lineman Messiah Simes while trying to set up a screen pass. After a penalty against Lamar, Pierce went up top to senior wide receiver Julian “JuJu” Morris for a 30-yard TD pass to mae it 27-0 with 8:05 left in the second quarter.

Pierce had a stellar night. He rushed for 127 yards and four touchdowns on 15 carries and completed 8 of 14 passes for 108 yards and two more scores.

  “It was one of the first games he’s played both ways, so to play that well on offense, that was special,” Boyd said of Pierce, who played around half of the defensive snaps in the secondary. “We needed it.”

The Lions finally got their offense going on the next possession, putting together an 11-play, 65-yard scoring drive. The big play was a 22-yard completion from Culp to sophomore running back AJ Price. Senior wide receiver JaCorreun Howze took a direct snap and went the final five yards for the touchdown. Senior placekicker Will Hough added the PAT to make it 27-7 with 3:05 to go in the first half.

That would be the halftime score with Lamar receiving the second-half kickoff. However, the Foxes fumbled the ball on the first play from scrimmage with Lewisville recovering at the Lamar 35. It took seven plays, but on third and goal from the 3, Culp connected with wide open junior wide receiver Jaylin Douglas for the touchdown.

The extra point was good to make it 27-14 with 9:51 remaining in the third quarter, and suddenly there was some angst among the Lamar faithful. That went away though as the Silver Foxes went on a 57-yard scoring drive – that took 12 plays. There was only one pass and it was an incompletion. Pierce scrambled for a 14-yard TD on third and goal that made it 34-14 with 3:25 left.

Almost as important as the points was the fact it ate up 6 minutes, 26 seconds, of the clock.  

“They were able to get the push at the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball,” Usher said. “Football is won at the line of scrimmage on the offensive and defensive lines, and they were able to push us around. They were able to move up and down the field.”

The Lions had it down to a 2-score game two minutes later when senior athlete Jordan Strong scored on a 10-yard run with 1:25 to go. The extra point was no good, leaving the score at 34-20. Lamar responded quickly with Pierce connecting with senior wide receiver Kamiil McCoy for a 26-yard score to make it 41-20 with 10:16 remaining in the fourth quarter.

The teams traded punts before the Lions scored on a 44-yard touchdown pass from Culp to Douglas to make it 41-27 with 5:30 left in the game. They failed to get the onside kick though, and Lamar took over four minutes off the clock on an 8-play, 49-yard scoring drive that ended with a 4-yard scoring run by senior running back Nygel Eady with 1:18 to go.

Eady also went over 100 yards rushing with 17 carries for 117 yards.

“They’re good up front too, so that was very big,” Boyd said of Lamar’s ability to consistently run the football as it finished with 280 rushing yards. “We got a hat on a hat, and we’ve got two good athletes running the ball.”

Usher was pleased with the way the Lions rebounded from a 2-3 start to once again make a run to the threshold of the state championship game. He also gave praise to a senior class that went 42-11 the last four years.

“I’m proud of the guys,” Usher said. “We went through a lot of trials, a lot of stuff early in te season. I’m just proud of the guys and the way they fought all year. To be able to play for another upper state championship with them was tremendous. With what they did the last four years, the sky’s the limit for our young guys.”