After falling behind early, East Marion couldn’t quite catch Amite County last Friday in a 28-20 loss to open the Eagles’ football season. That’s despite senior sensation Jarveon Howard rushing 12 times for 201 yards and two scores.
Set up by a 75-yard pass play, which led to a score with 3:50 to go in the first quarter, the Trojans got a win for new coach Reginald Lumpkin in Liberty. East Marion coach Kevin Jackson said the loss was a tough one.
“There were bright sides and there were dark sides,” he said. “Every time we got something going, we made a mistake and it set us back. Those are things that we can fix throughout the course of the week.”
The Eagles responded quickly to the Amite County touchdown when Howard scampered 70 yards to paydirt on first down with 3:25 left in the first quarter. A fumbled snap on the two-point conversion prevented the Eagles from taking a lead and the game was tied, 6-6.
Early in the second quarter, Amite County got on the board again, capping a drive with a 28-yard touchdown pass and making the two-point conversion to take a 14-6 with 9:38 to go in the half. The Trojans would add another touchdown with 7:19 to go, connecting on a pass play and then adding a two-point conversion to make the score 22-6.
East Marion’s Keithshon Johnson had a long return called back for a block in the back on the ensuing kickoff and then Howard dashed off another 70-plus yard run for a score. The Eagles did not make the two-point conversion and trailed 22-12 at halftime.
The two teams played string defense during the third quarter with neither team scoring.
Amite County drove deep into East Marion territory and scored a touchdown with 5:30 remaining in the game to make it 28-12. Amite County failed to convert the two-point conversion.
During the final drive, quarterback Devin Daniels had several 15-yard gains, including a touchdown to cap the drive. He also scored the two-point conversion to move the Eagles within striking distance at 28-20 with 2:29 left in the game. The Eagles, however did not get the ball back and fell 28-20.
Daniels rushed eight times for 71 yards and was four of 10 passing for 30 yards. His target on each of his completed passes was Flenard McLin.
“East Marion has a good team,” Lumpkin said after the game. “Our offensive and defensive lines played a heck of a game.”
Jackson said though his team lost, he was pleased with the effort.
“It’s a loss, but hopefully we learned something out of it,” he said. “Hopefully our kids get ready to fight and practice hard this week. We’ve been talking about playing for 48 minutes and these guys did that tonight. Unfortunately, we came up short.”
Jackson told the team in the huddle after the game that he was proud of the effort.
“You fought your tails off,” he said. “You played for 48 minutes like I asked you. We’ve got to get better in practice. Every rep you’ve got to have a great attitude and work hard at it. You’ve got to keep believing in yourselves. You’ve got to keep working. We’ve got to fix our mistakes and play our assignments.”
This week, the Eagles host Columbia at 7 p.m. Friday at Leslie Peters Field.
“Columbia is a rival,” Jackson concluded. “I’m sure they’re going to be ready to play. I hope our kids are ready to play them.”
Pictured Above: Jarveon Howard get upended by an Amite County defender. | Photo by Mark Rogers
