At 6-foot-3, Michael Graise is an imposing sight at defensive end.
Graise is even more dominating on the basketball court. His leaping ability gives him the ups to touch the top of the box on the backboard.
Fortunately, Graise knows when to jump for the sky and when to hold a little something back.
Graise’s interception with less than four minutes to play in the fourth quarter set the stage for Von Smith’s 3-yard touchdown run that lifted the West Oktibbeha High School football team to a 36-30 victory against West Lowndes in a Class 1A, Region 3 game at Panther Field.
Graise, who was playing on the left end, read the set up on a screen pass by quarterback Gerald Sanders and timed his jump just right to make the game-changing interception with 3 minutes, 48 seconds to go in the game.
“It probably would have hit me in the waist (if he jumped his highest),” Graise said. “I had a feeling he was going to try to throw it over my head because they had run the same play. I figured I should go get it instead of letting it go over my head.”
The turnover gave West Oktibbeha (6-2, 4-1 region) the ball at the West Lowndes 28. It took the Timberwolves five plays to punch it home.
Dwight Quinn and Richard Richmond had interceptions in the final two-plus minutes to preserve the victory.
“Games like this point to nobody but God,” West Oktibbeha coach Adam Lowrey said. “I told you at the end of the fourth quarter that after we had thrown interceptions, turned the ball over, held more than the miles it took to bring us here, and we had more facemask penalties called against us in one game than we had all of last year, we had two points taken off the scoreboard. Even when there times when we doubted at halftime, we showed faith.”
Tiberias Lampkin (18 rushes, 92 yards) was the horse on a 15-play drive that helped West Oktibbeha rally to tie the game at 30. Lampkin rushed six times and caught three passes from quarterback Von Smith (15 of 23, 197 yards, two interceptions) to put the Timberwolves in position. After gaining only 2 yards on three carries from first-and-goal at the 6, he bulled him from 4 yards with 6:42 remaining to tie the game. West Oktibbeha converted the two-point pass play, but the head official overruled the play, leaving the game tied.
West Lowndes senior running back Antonio Wilson (26 carries, 136 yards) made something out of nothing to give the Panthers (2-6, 1-4) the lead. Facing a second-and-15 from its 29 on the first play of the fourth quarter, West Lowndes quarterback Gerald Sanders had the snap go through hiss hands. Sanders tracked back and scooped the ball up. He had the presence of mind to loft a screen-like pass to Wilson, who slipped through and past at least three tacklers and scampered down the left sideline for a touchdown that gave West Lowndes a 30-24 lead with 11 minutes, 43 seconds left in the final quarter. Wilson’s conversion run failed.
“Antonio makes a lot of plays just go,” West Lowndes coach Anthony King said. “If we just give him a seam he can hit it. Unfortunately, we didn’t give him enough. I think him and Gerald did pretty good. That’s where the offseason comes into play, when you need to make that stop. You make that stop when you have put the time in.”
Both teams hurt themselves with mistakes in the first half.
West Oktibbeha committed nine penalties for nearly 82 yards. West Lowndes committed six penalties for 30 yards.
West Lowndes fumbled on the West Oktibbeha 1-yard line on the second play of the second quarter. West Oktibbeha gave the ball back on the ensuing possession when Smith lost a fumble after being flushed from the pocket.
The Timberwolves stuffed the Panthers following the turnover and went on one of their best drives of the game. West Oktibbeha overcame two holding penalties and used a 36-yard pass from Smith to Shun Fair to get a first down at the West Lowndes 17. But an illegal procedure penalty pushed the Timberwolves back to a fourth-and-7 from the 13-and-a-half yard line. Smith had Fair open in the left corner of the end zone, but Fair dropped the ball.
West Lowndes capitalized with its best drive of the half. Sanders hit Trevor Stowers with a 20-yard gain on third-and-9 to keep the drive alive. He then shook off a sack by Tiberias Lampkin and Jonathan Love and hit Wilson on a 25-yard pass across the middle on fourth-and-12 from the 32-yard line with 32 seconds remaining in the quarter. With no timeouts, West Lowndes gave the ball to Wilson, who raced around right end and scored on a 7-yard run. Sanders’ conversion run tied the game.
Drake Powell opened the scoring for West Oktibbeha when a deflected punt caromed right into his hands and he scampered 25 yards for a touchdown.
Sanders hit Darius Farmer on an 11-yard roll out pass to put West Lowndes in position to tie the score. Wilson nearly punched the ball home on the conversion run, but he appeared to fumble and Farmer recovered for the score.
King lamented the mistakes his team made that prevented it from capitalizing on the numerous chances it had.
“Turnovers hurt us tonight,” King said. “I like the way the guys came out and competed. I still say the offseason hurt us. We have had three tough losses, and I believe if we would have put the time in this summer and had extra work that would have gotten us over the hump.”
King was hired late in the summer to take the place of longtime coach Bobby Berry, who retired after last season. King said his team still doesn’t know how to win games and is playing too inconsistently to win close ballgames.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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