COLONY Crest Highs Lancers picked up the pace after a sloppy first half Friday, scoring three touchdowns in a five-minute stretch of the third quarter to defeat visiting Southern Coffey County, 40-16.
The win puts Crest in prime position for a home playoff game in two weeks. The Lancers stand at 3-1 in district play (4-3 overall), with one regular season contest left next Friday at Altoona-Midway. Southern Coffey County (2-2 in district play; 2-5 overall) hosts undefeated St. Paul.
Leading 14-8 at the break, Crest got a spark from quarterback Jacquez Coleman, who capped consecutive drives with touchdown runs covering 2 and 56 yards, respectively. But the biggest play of the game likely came in Southern Coffey Countys drive after Colemans second score.
Titan quarterback Cooper Harred found receiver Jaden Pankey for a long completion down the sideline. But Lancer defender Stratton McGhee raced down Pankey from behind, stripped and recovered the fumble in one swoop, then raced about 25 yards the other way to set up Crest in prime field position.
Caleb Nolan capped the Lancers subsequent possession with a 4-yard touchdown run to push the Lancers ahead 34-8.
Thats what (Stratton) does, Crest head coach Nick McAnulty said. Hes full speed all the time, and makes some big things happen. Hes our leading tackler, and really gets after it.
It went from being down to maybe two touchdowns to Oh no, what do we do? Titan head coach Trevor Smith said.
The stretch followed a bizarre first half in which SCC dominated time of possession, but still trailed. Crest scored on a one-play drive with Zach Beckmons 53-yard touchdown to push Crest up 8-6, before the Titans responded with a drive that ended on a fourth-down try at the Lancer 1.
Crests next play ended in disaster. The Lancers were whistled for a holding penalty in the end zone, resulting in a safety and two points for Southern Coffey County.
A 30-yard Coleman run set up a 2-yard Beckmon touchdown one play later for a 14-8 Lancer lead midway through the second quarter.
Titan quarterback Cooper Harred opened SCCs scoring with an 8-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-1 just minutes into the game. But that was it until Harred scored on another 8-yard run with 7:39 left in the game, again on fourth down.
Cooper was hurting, Smith said. He took a pretty good shot in the first quarter. It was pretty rough on him.
Beckmon ended the scoring with a 40-yard touchdown with 4:44 left in the contest.
We just had to clean things up, McAnulty said.
Beckmon rushed for 235 yards on 14 carries with three touchdowns. Stratton rushed 12 times for 161 yards. Coleman had 130 yards on 11 rushes. Individual statistics for SCC were unavailable.
Both teams missed scoring chances in the first half, courtesy of fumbles, dropped passes and penalties.
