AVON — The Leland High School football team picked up its first victory of the season Friday night in a hard fought 14-12 overtime slugfest against the Riverside Bulldogs.
Leland’s Marchez Boykins scored both touchdowns for his Cubs, including the game winner from 8-yards out in overtime and the two-point conversion.
“This win means a lot,” Boykins said. “We were 0-7 coming into the game, and it did not feel good. This proves that we aren’t a weak link.”
Leland head coach Ricardo Tigler said the victory was a testament to the hard work of his players, even when the losses started to mount up, his team never quit.
“This has been a tough season,” Coach Tigler said. “The guys were excited to get the win, and they deserve to be excited. The kids never gave up, and they have been coming to practice every day and working hard and doing what we asked them to.”
Boykins scored his first touchdown of the game from one yard out to give the Cubs a 6-0 lead with seven minutes left in the second quarter.
The Cubs held their lead for much of the second half, but the Bulldogs got on the board when Kyle Lewis caught a 35-yard touchdown pass from DJ Gatson on a halfback toss pass. The touchdown was set up after Riverside’s Jordan Allen intercepted a Leland fake punt and ran it back to the 17-yard line of Leland.
Lewis’ touchdown pass tied the game at 6-6. After meeting with coaches on both sides for a number of minutes, the officials eventually ruled the Riverside (1-8) extra point unsuccessful. Riverside coach Will Rodgers had argued that a Leland defender illegally hit the Riverside long snapper.
“It was a blatant miscall, but in the end our guys just did not execute well enough. We gave them way too many yards because of penalties” Coach Rodgers said.
Leland began the overtime on offense first with Boykins rushing twice to find the endzone. Boykins’ two-point conversion rush put the Cubs up 14-6.
Riverside would only need two rushes as well to find the endzone, as Moore bull rushed the Leland defense twice in a row for a score to make it 14-12 before the Bulldogs failed on their two-point attempt.
Greenville Christian 48, Delta Streets Academy 0
In their last game of the regular season, the Greenville Christian School Saints were able to get a bunch of their players involved in big plays Friday night in their 48-0 victory over Delta Streets Academy.
GCS quarterback Jaylen Bester threw 3 touchdowns, and Saint QB Tre Rhodes threw for a touchdown and rushed for a score. Rhodes’ touchdown pass went to Jadan Davis as the Saints to a 40-0 lead into halftime.
Tae Myles caught a touchdown from Bester, and Rinez Hawkins also scored a TD to help the GCS effort.
The Saints (4-5) will have a bye next in the opening round of the MAIS Class 3A Playoffs.
“I thought we played really well tonight, and we were able to get a lot of people involved and that was nice to see,” Greenville Christian School coach Jon Reed McLendon said.
JZ George 24, O’Bannon 7
O’Bannon High School’s Ashton McKinnie returned a 20-yard interception into the endzone to give his Greenwaves (3-6) an early 7-0 lead, but JZ George would take the lead for good late in the first half to take an 8-7 lead into intermission.
“We were right with them until the second half and then we started making too many miscues,” O’Bannon coach Lynn Lang said.
O’Bannon hosts rival Riverside next Friday.
JZ George improved to 6-2.
West Point 40, Greenville High 8
The Greenville Hornets saw their record drop to 0-8 with a 40-8 road loss to West Point Friday night.
West Point improved its record to 6-2.
Greenville returns home next Friday night to face Lafayette.
