The Result/Story:? Two weeks after seeing their 22-game league winning streak come to an end in a disappointing loss to Maury, the Lake Taylor Titans were about to see their reign as Champions of the Eastern District come to an end, trailing at home in the third quarter by a score of 24-7 to the Norcom Greyhounds.? As they have done at times during their run, the Titans were able to mustard up enough energy and determination not to be denied, rallying to score 21 points in the game's final 14 minutes to pull of a memorable 28-24 come-from-behind victory.

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"I didn't do the talking at half-time, Travis Williams did the talk," pointed out Lake Taylor Head Coach Hank Sawyer of his four-year senior starting linebacker that's committed to the University of Miami of Florida. ?"In his talk, he said he refuses to lose.? He went around the field and he helped everybody that was down, not having a good game, and he told them what they needed to do.? Those seniors and captains, they just rallied around.? We felt like we that we just didn't want to go down without fighting.? Our goal is to get to the State Championship.? What we were was going the other way tonight."

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Midway through the third quarter, the Lake Taylor offense was stagnant and needed some kind of lift.? They were 1-for-7 on third down conversions, this after they converted their first third down try on their opening series.?

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That's when Sawyer inserted junior backup quarterback Stanley Walls for senior starter Kevin Swofford.? The move worked like a charm as they riddled off three consecutive scoring drives that totaled 174 yards, finishing each drive in less than five minutes with time being of the essence. ?

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"The only thing that was going through my mind was 'win' and three scores. ?That's all we needed," said Walls, who ran for 66 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 12 carries while completing 3 of 4 passes for 48 yards in limited duty.?

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"I wanted to play extra fast and I told them if I run away from the Coach, tell somebody to go get the play and hurry up.? We have to score, use a quick tempo and fortunately they weren't fast enough and we were able to get a win.? This is a big moment going towards the playoffs.? We couldn't afford to lose that game.? We want to be Eastern District Champs one more time."

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Swofford wasn't done, however.? On the Titans' last drive, needing to go only 43 yards in four minutes with the defense setting them up with good field position, Lake Taylor twice dodged disaster.? An interception was called back on a roughing the passer penalty, and after a penalty and sack, they went from 1^st & Goal at the 3-yard line to 2^nd & Goal at the 13-yard line.? That's when Swofford returned, and following a 12-yard gain from running back Derrion 'Booty' Walton, he managed to punch in the game-winning score with 1:09 left in regulation.

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"It did feel nice to score there at the end.? I couldn't run as well because of my ankle.? Stanley got us some progress and got the offense started and I just finished off for my team.? I couldn't let my team down on our Senior Night.? I felt like nothing was going right, but I never gave up and that's what I was taught," said Swofford.? "This is a turning point, but we've got to play hard throughout the whole game, not give up and keep practicing."

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Not to be forgotten in the comeback was Walton, who put forth another strong effort where he rushed for 164 yards and a touchdown on 25 attempts.? That brought his season totals to 980 yards and 13 rushing touchdowns.? He's got 1623 all-purpose yards and 16 total scores.

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"We were trying to motivate the team and tell them to stay focused. ?Both of our quarterbacks came through," Walton noted.? "We knew their defense wasn't fast enough for us, so I was just telling them to hit the outside, follow me, keep working and for our o-line to keep blocking.? And all those penalties, it's going to come back for us."

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Tale of Two Halves:? At the break, the score was 18-6 in favor of Norcom.? The Greyhounds got huge offensive plays, a few of which where quarterback Deandre Lamb had a hand in them, whether it was passing or running.? Chavelle Atkins opened the scoring with a 69-yard touchdown run, and after that Lamb fired an 80-yard touchdown bomb to Raymond Thornton.? Lamb's 41-yard run on a trap play set up the Greyhounds inside the 10-yard line, where on 4^th & Goal, he hit Carlos Mills for a 3-yard TD.

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On three plays alone, the Greyhounds racked up 191 of their 222 yards they totaled in the first half.? More impressively, they did it against a Lake Taylor defense that was yielding a meager 51.1 total yards per game entering the contest.

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"They hit us with some big plays.? That's what happens when you bring two great defenses in like we had tonight.? The offenses come out and usually explode like that," joked Sawyer.?

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That Lake Taylor defense, usually dominant but caught napping on a few plays in the first half, wasn't joking in the second half.? Norcom gained only 46 yards after half-time and 35 of those came after a fumble put the Greyhounds in Titan territory.? Lamb capped the series with a 27-yard touchdown, his third of the night (23^rd overall rushing or passing of the season), to Elton Pugh.

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"You have to give Norcom credit, though.? They played an unbelievable game and put it on us the first half.? They have an excellent football team, an excellent coaching staff and they wanted to beat us tonight to dethrone us.? We haven't won the [Eastern District] Championship yet.? We know we have another game with Norview and we have to get ready for that one."

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Dual Quarterbacks:? With the Norcom defense keying in on the run, it was important for Lake Taylor established some kind of a passing attack to take pressure off their backfield, and more importantly, not make them one-dimensional.? In the first half they completed only 2 of 8 passes for 14 yards, and that production picked up significantly in the final two quarters, hitting on 4 of 9 passes for 65 yards.? Unlike the Maury game, they didn't abandon the running game and attempt 43 passes (likely a school-record).? There was no friction between Swofford and Walls either.

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"They're good friends.? The offense was dragging a little bit.? Stanley came in and gave us a spark.? Kevin came back in and threw what should've been a touchdown pass, we drop it [and that] would've gave us some more spark.? Stanley came back in, ran it a little bit more, gave the ball to Booty and Kevin topped it off when he went in from the two," commented Sawyer.

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Going at a faster pace had to fatigue Walls, not to mention he hasn't been in those situations before and having played very little this year prior to Friday's game.

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"He (Walls) was a little bit tired, both of them.? We're a team.? Everything is team whether people want to believe it or not.? They thrive off each other, it helped and it was a good situation.? We call it our quarterback unit, and we think we have a decent quarterback unit."

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Kicking Game Looms Large:? At night's end, the margin on the scoreboard was four points.? Norcom controlled the first half, Lake Taylor most of the second half, especially the fourth quarter, the overall numbers were very similar.? So what proved to be the tangible difference?? In my eyes, it was the kicking game.?

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Norcom failed to convert a single extra point try, going 0-for-4, and with better production in that aspect from the special teams unit, they would've at least forced overtime, perhaps won.? Lake Taylor kicker Adrian Bravo-Morales connected on all four of his extra point attempts, also not allowing Norcom to have a chance for a game-tying field goal attempt on their final possession if they had gone down the field and been in range.

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In the grand scheme of things, it probably doesn't seem like much, one team going 4-for-4 and another 0-for-4 in a thrilling game that produced 52 points.? But when it goes down to the wire, it can have the same type of meaning as being plus one or two or minus one or two in the turnover department.

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Sawyer Says:? "As the season winds down, you don't want to lose going into the playoffs because people can look at the film and see what you're weak at.? They still may be able to do that, but any win is a good win."

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Famous Amos:? After taking a 28-24 lead, on the ensuing kickoff, Norcom fumbled the ball, the Titans recovered and they took a knee to run out the clock.? Helping cause the fumble with Williams on the play was 6-foot-tall, 190-pound freshman Amos Howard.? He's not a household name by any means yet, but his grandfather, Amos Lawrence, sure was.

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As a rookie in the NFL, Lawrence played on the 1981-82 San Francisco 49ers team that went on to win a Super Bowl.? During his college days he played at North Carolina, amassing over 4000 career yards.? At Lake Taylor, Lawrence rushed for a school-record 411 yards in the team's 37-17 win over Bayside in October of 1975.? He was even dubbed the nickname 'Famous Amos' during his playing days, and now Lawrence's grandson can have it for one night.

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Postgame Audio with Lake Taylor Coach Hank Sawyer

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Stats:? *** Courtesy of STATVA/Mike Whittington

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Lake Taylor 28:

Derrion Walton - 25Car. 164Yds. TD

Stanley Walls - 3-4 for 48Yds; 12Car. 66Yds. 2TD

Kevin Swofford - 3-13 for 31Yds; GW TD run

Aharon Neil - 3Rec. 44Yds.

Eric Sykes - 4 Tackles, 3TFL, Sack, Forced Fumble & Fumble Recovery

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Norcom 24:

Deandre Lamb - 5-13 for 134Yds. 3-0TD/Int. ratio; 9Car. 45Yds.

Demontray Ryland - 9 Tackles

Patrick Brock - 8 Tackles, Sack

Chavelle Atkins - 2Car. 59Yds. TD; 6 Tackles, Fumble Recovery

Carlos Mills - 1Rec. 3Yds. TD; 7 Tackles

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Matthew Hatfield has covered Eastern Region Basketball & Football since 2004 for VirginiaPreps.com - the #1 High School Sports Site on the Rivals Network.? Check out Hatfield's website - www.matthewhatfield.com - for more on the pro and college sports scene.? To contact Matthew, please e-mail hatfieldsports2k4@yahoo.com, and catch him every Saturday during High School Sports Talk on ESPN Radio 94.1.