Published: September 24, 2008 09:57 am         

FCA holds off Tigers in 30-28 Region 3-1A battle

A back-and-forth slugfest between two hungry Region 3-1A football teams came down to a defensive play with just over a minute left to play, as French Camp recovered an Ethel fumble at its own 15-yard line to seal a 30-28 win on Friday night.

“They scored on us late and we had a chance to take the lead, but we turned it over after moving the ball down the field,” said EHS head football coach Paul Dees. “It was a game that saw us change leads several times, but in the end they stopped us when they had too.”

Dees said much of the credit has to go to the FCA players and coaching staff.

“They executed better than they have all year,” he said of the French Camp offense. “They have moved the ball on some teams, but they had shot themselves in the foot. They played well. I thought we got outplayed and out-coached.”

Now the 1-2 Ethel Tigers must travel to Noxapater for a 7:30 p.m. Region 3-1A game on Friday. Noxapater is 2-2 and the game is important to both teams as they strive to have winning seasons and possibly earn a spot in the playoffs.

“They are all important to us right now,” Dees said. “Every game is a big game. We just have got to bounce back and move forward.”

French Camp, which moved to 2-2 overall and in region play with the win, hits the road to face Mize in a non-division contest.

Ethel’s first-quarter touchdowns came on a 4-yard run by Hunter Dempsey and a 4-yard run by Alexander Erving. The conversion failed after the first touchdown, but Dempsey tacked on the two-pointer after the second score ti give the homestanding Tigers a 14-12 half-time lead.

FCA’s second quarter touchdowns came on a 44-yard pass play from Courtney Lucious to Tevan Hollway and a 45-yard run by Justin Anderson. Anderson, a sophomore, wound up leading both teams in rushing with 122 yards on 13 carries.

The visiting Panthers took an 18-14 lead in the third quarter when Anderson got loose for 13-yard touchdown run.

Ethel used a 1-yard touchdown run by Dempsey, a Troymun Hawthorne two-point conversion run and a 15-yard fumble return by Antwon McCain to counter a 60-yard touchdown pass from Anderson to Jovon Turner to retake the lead.

However FCA went up for good when Lucious hit Turner with a 30-yard scoring strike late in the fourth quarter.

That’s when Ethel mounted it’s final attempt at winning the game, only to fumble the ball away.

Erving led the Ethel rushing attack with 83 yards on seven carries, while Hawthorne had 73 yards on 14 attempts and Morgan rushed for 63 yards on 14 tries. He also had two catches for 29 yards.

Dempsey connected on four-of-eight passes for 34 yards, while Keith Collins led the way defensively for the Tigers with seven tackles. Morgan, Erving and Lawrence Shaffer had six tackles each.