Hawks falter against LaGrange in first home loss of the season

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Huntingdon football team gave up two touchdowns in the final six minutes of the game and fell to LaGrange 24-17 on Saturday.

LaGrange took advantage of a miscue in Huntingdon's kicking game to score and tie the game. The Panthers recovered a Huntingdon fumble on the punt attempt and scored to make it 17-17 with 5:14 to play. With 1:01 left in the game, LaGrange took the lead for good on a 21-yard touchdown pass from Graham Craig to Michael Gray.

The Hawks marched to the LaGrange 23-yard line and took a shot at the end zone with less than 10 seconds to play. But Luke Bailey's pass was picked off at the goal line to end the comeback attempt.

The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for the Hawks (5-3, 4-2 USA South). This was the first loss to the Panthers (4-4, 2-4 USA South) at Samford Stadium in the history of the series.

The loss also knocks the Hawks out of a tie for first in the USA South Athletic Conference standings. Maryville, Methodist and Christopher Newport sit atop the conference standings at 4-1.

"This one hurts," Huntingdon head coach Mike Turk said. "We were in a position to win the conference if we could win out. But we knew we couldn't afford another conference loss. Now, with two conference losses, we're going to have to refocus. We'll use the bye week to try and get some people healthy and come back and finish up with two big games."

The Hawks will have a bye on Nov. 1 before returning to Samford Stadium for the final home game of the regular season. The Hawks host Averett on Nov. 8 at 1 p.m.

Huntingdon led for much of the game on Saturday. The Hawks had a goal-line stand at their own 1-yard line on the first possession of the game and appeared ready to set the tone for the game.

Bailey connected with Darius Dawsey for a 4-yard touchdown in the first quarter and Jimbo Turk converted a 20-yard field goal in the second quarter. But the Hawks could only manage one more score. A 9-yard run by Bailey gave Huntingdon a 17-10 lead with 5:27 left in the third quarter.

The score stood until the final six minutes.

Sophomore running back Jay Ware led the Hawks with 185 yards on 30 carries. The 185 yards are the third most in a game by a Hawk. Alex Baronich holds Huntingdon's single-game rushing record with 287 yards against LaGrange in 2009. Willie Horn is second on the list with 231 yards against Westminster in 2005.

Bailey passed for 115 yards and ran for 82 yards.

The Hawks finished with 404 yards of offense and held LaGrange to 371 yards, almost 60 yards below the Panthers' season average.

Linebackers Jacob Wright and Zach Brownell combined for 24 tackles for the Hawks. Wright had 13 tackles and Brownell added 11 tackles. Defensive lineman Phillip Bagley had eight tackles, a sack and a tackle for loss and defensive back Anthony White and linebacker Jake Green each had seven tackles.

Green had two tackles for loss and defensive linemen Octavis Harris and Drew Wheeler each had a sack. Defensive back Jeremy Murphy picked off his fourth pass of the season.