PROCTORVILLE — With 38 seconds remaining in Friday's game, Fairland quarterback Joel Lambiotte dropped back for a play-action pass and connected with Brennen West for an 18-yard touchdown.
That touchdown sunk Athens in the final minute of its 35-31 loss to Fairland, a back-and-forth thriller at Jim Mayo Memorial Stadium.
“I think that we just faced more adversity out here than what we were going to be able to handle, more than anything else,” Athens coach Ryan Adams. “Even with that, we’re still trying to make plays, scratch, claw and fight clear until the very end there.”
After the two teams had already exchanged the lead twice to begin the fourth quarter, Fairland regained possession on its own 1-yard line with 6:31 remaining after an Athens interception.
Backed up with their heels on their own goal line, the Dragons were wary of a safety but opted to throw the deep ball on second down. Lambiotte took a quick one-step drop before launching the ball toward his target on a fade route on the Dragon sideline. That’s when Braeden Halbert stole the ball back for the Bulldogs, snatching it out of the hands of a Dragon receiver.
That interception gave the Bulldogs great field position inside the Dragons' 40-yard line down 28-24.
Clay Davis and the Athens offense then began marching down the field with 4:36 to go.
Davis easily converted on a third and short after powering his way through the Dragons front. The Bulldogs would struggle on the next set of downs as the Dragons forced Davis to drop back on a fourth and long. His pass was incomplete. But a roughing the passer penalty gave the Bulldogs a new set of downs and eventually lead to a Logan Maxfield score off a slant route from 11 yards out.
The Bulldogs carried the 31-28 lead with 2:44 remaining. Unfortunately for their secondary, that was more than enough time for Lambiotte and the Dragons to make a run at the end zone.
Fairland quickly began moving the ball, spotting itself up with favorable field position as Lambiotte found Gavin Hunt for a 14-yard reception that brought the ball to the Athens 31-yard line.
Then, in a similar circumstance from the drive earlier, a roughing the passer penalty was again called with 1:07 left in the game — this time, against Athens.
“We played a good game,” Maxfield said. “We just had a few mental mistakes and penalties. I think if we can just fix that, we’ll be perfectly fine.”
The 15-yard penalty set up the eventual game-winner for Fairland. The touchdown capped off an eight-play, 62-yard Fairland drive.
Athens managed to get off a couple of plays before the clock expired; on its final play, it attempted two laterals but wasn’t close to scoring.
“(We) threw in our little psycho play at the very end and executed it decently,” Adams said. “Even at that, they still made a play at the end and they just had one more punch left, I guess.”
The loss may come back to haunt Athens’ playoff chances later in the season. For now, however, Athens is only focused on the opponent ahead: Parkersburg South next Friday.
“Life throws these kind of things at you all the time, and I only know one way to be — and that’s to pick up the pieces and move on the next day,” Adams said. “Tomorrow, I’ll be thinking about Parkersburg South.”
