Friday, Sep. 05, 2008

Field goal worth the worry for Airport

Late kick, interception separate Eagles from Demons

Airport coach Kirk Burnett figured seven points would not be enough of a lead to defeat Class 3A’s Lugoff-Elgin.

As it turned out, 10 points were sufficient. The Eagles put down the Demons 31-21 to rise to 2-0 at home.

“They’re a great team,” Burnett said. “They are a physical and fast team and we could go back and forth all night.”

With 7:44 left to play, Lugoff-Elgin’s Anthony Myers intercepted a W.T. Murden pass to give the Demons a chance from 33 yards out. Minutes later, Trent Hudson’s 5-yard run pulled the Demons even.

But Griffith Sims’ 42-yard field goal from the left hash, with 1:11 remaining, gave Airport the lead.

“That was the first field goal of his career,” said Burnett, who copped to pilfering the junior soccer player during the off-season. “He was so nervous, we considered faking it.”

While his team took a timeout, Sims said he stood on the field considering the distance and deemed it worth a shot.

“When we went in the huddle with my teammates I said we might as well go for it,” Sims said.

With 33 seconds to go, Stephen Gainey added a 40-yard interception return for good measure.

“That was the coaches’ fault,” Lugoff-Elgin coach Scott Jones said. “We’ve got a pretty good kicker ourselves so we were scrambling to get in field goal range and we made that call. We felt like if we could get in his range, we could go to overtime.”

Jones’ team lost two fumbles and threw two interceptions.

“The game came down to turnovers and we made too many of them. They’re too good a team to have that happen,” Jones said.

The Eagles’ first possession covered 25 yards, but one of two Miguel Cokley fumble recoveries — on the Demons’ second offensive play — put Airport back on track. The Eagles took the ball from Lugoff-Elgin’s 21 and punched it in with four plays.

Lugoff-Elgin used nine plays to drive 52 yards and make the Eagles pay for missing the extra-point kick. Grayson Quick’s boot gave the Demons a 7-6 lead near the start of the second period. When they regained possession nearly five minutes later, the Demons made short work of an 80-yard field to extend their lead. The drive, which took 1:49, was aided by Stephen Bonaparte’s 27-yard rush and capped by Julian Baxter’s 49-yard catch-and-run and put Lugoff-Elgin up 14-6 with 3:38 remaining in the half.

Quarterback W.T. Murden delivered the Eagles’ answer—an 18-yard touchdown pass to Sting Williams.

Murden made good on the two-point pass to Derek Cushman to knot the score going into halftime.

Reach Nelson at (803) 771-8419.

First quarter

A: Tyler Sturkie 4 pass from WT Murden (kick failed), 6:48

Second quarter

L-E: Phillip Osborne 6 run (Grayson Quick kick), 10:00

L-E: Julian Baxter 49 pass from Forrest Koumas (Quick kick), 3:38

A: Sting Williams 18 pass from Murden (Cushman pass from Murden), 1:08

Third quarter

A: Deonne Hopkins 29 pass from Murden (Griffith Sims kick), 10:52

Fourth quarter

L-E: Trent Hudson 5 run (Quick kick), 4:25

A: Sims 42 field goal, 1:11

A: Stephen Gainey 40 interception return, 33.7

Receiving: L-E: Julian Baxter 2-58. A: Sting Williams 4-48, Deonne Hopkins 2-44, Tyler Sturkie 3-30.

Passing: L-E: Forrest Koumas 4-15-75-2. A: WT Murden 13-26-162-1.