Playoff football: Lake Taylor 10, Hampton 7

By Chic Riebel

The Virginian-Pilot

NORFOLK

In a stunning finish that left Lake Taylor shrieking with delight and Hampton howling in complaint, the Titans notched a 10-7 overtime victory in the Eastern Region Division 5 semifinals Friday night when LaRoderick Dean blocked a 23-yard field goal attempt that could have sent the game into a second overtime.

Seconds earlier, Hampton, which had negative total offense early in the fourth quarter and finished with minus-42 yards rushing, thought it had won the game as Kavon Bellamy seemingly scored from the 4-yard line when a scrum that appeared to involve every player on the field moved over the goal line.

Lake Taylor players instantly dropped to the field, thinking they had lost the game. But officials ruled the play dead at the 2, setting up the potential game-tying field goal. When Dean blocked the kick, the Hampton sidelines erupted in anger.

Titans coach Hank Sawyer thought the refs made the correct call.

“That was aiding the runner down there,” he said of the pushing, shoving pack of Crabbers. “You can’t do that in football. Bottom line is they got it right.”

And now Lake Taylor (10-2) gets a chance to make things right in next Friday’s region final when the Titans meet defending state champion Phoebus (12-0) in a rematch of last year’s region title game.

They have Dean to thank for the opportunity.

“I knew they couldn’t block me, so I just ran my hardest,” the sophomore defensive lineman said. “I ran straight through them and got it.”

Adrian Bravo-Morales’ 26-yard field goal had given Lake Taylor the lead in the extra period.

An amazing turn of events created the overtime. After totally throttling the Crabbers (8-4) for the first 44 minutes, the Titans’ defense finally broke down when David Watford, who was sacked 10 times and completed only one of his first 13 passes, found Jason Manago-Graves wide-open down the right sideline and hit him with a 44-yard touchdown pass with just 3:20 left in the game.

Until that point, Lake Taylor had little trouble protecting a 7-0 lead it earned in the first period when Stanley Walls hooked up with Mario Rowson on a 26-yard touchdown pass.

On the Hampton possession preceding Manago-Graves’ touchdown, the Titans averted a tying score when the Crabbers fumbled away a pitch on a fourth-and-goal from the 4 with 6:12 to play.

A 56-yard pass play to tight end Jonathan Echols had put Hampton in scoring position.

The two long passes seemed to take away some of the Titans’ swagger, but Sawyer was confident going into overtime.

“I was worried a little, but I felt like our defense would come through,” he said.

Lake Taylor 10, Hampton 7

Hampton 0 0 0 7 0 — 7

Lake Taylor 7 0 0 0 3 — 10

LT—Rowson 26 pass from Walls (Bravo-Morales kick)

H—Manago-Graves 44 pass from Watford (Hutcheson kick)

LT—FG Bravo-Morales 26

Hampton; Lake Taylor

First downs 6; 6

Rushes-yards 30-(-42); 37-71

Passing yards 105; 28

Passing 4-19-1; 2-13-1

Punts-average yards 9-32; 9-29

Fumbles-lost 1-1; 2-1

Penalties-yards 7-70; 6-45

Chic Riebel, (757) 446-2367, chic.riebel@pilotonline.com