Published: August 25, 2007 01:26 am         

In Oak Hill it’s the ‘Lawson’

OAK HILL — When push came to shove, Oak Hill’s Chris Lawson had the right answer.

Lawson scored three touchdowns and, with the contest in the balance, came up with the game-saving interception as the Red Devils held off Fayette County rival Fayetteville 28-21 Friday night at John P. Duda Stadium.

Fayetteville had the ball and the momentum, driving into the red zone with under a minute left.

On third-and-10 from the 12, Lawson outmaneuvered a Fayetteville receiver and picked off quarterback Stephen Fruit’s pass with 49 seconds left to effectively end the game.

“I got a little confused,” Lawson, the Red Devils’ safety, said of the play. “I saw a back coming out of the backfield and I went with him. Then I saw a guy flash out of the corner of my eye and I went back that way and I was able to (make the interception). I had to do it. That’s my job.”

“A big play,” Oak Hill coach Toby Harris said. “If they score a touchdown there, we’re going to overtime.”

Lawson finished with 94 tough yards on 19 carries and scored on runs of 33, 3 and 25 yards.

It was his score on the first series of the second half that gave Oak Hill the lead for good. Quarterback B.J. Wallace found Phillip Cox on the two-point conversion pass to make it 21-14.

“That was huge,” Lawson said of the Red Devils’ first drive of the second half.

“We were all a little down at the half. I had fumbled in the second quarter to hurt the team and I wanted to do something to make up for that.”

Marcus McFarland made a fine diving catch of a Wallace pass for 17 yards to take the ball to the three, ahead of Lawson’s score.

“Little McFarland, our 130-pounder,” Harris said. “He’s got the best hands on the team.”

After a Fayetteville three-and-out, Oak Hill mounted another drive, highlighted by a 37-yard pitch and catch from Wallace to Rmykal McDowell.

Lawson would score from 25 yards out — his third TD of the night — to give the Red Devils a 28-14 lead.

The Pirates were hurt when Drew Weis, who finished with 104 yards on the ground, missed the third quarter and part of the fourth with an undisclosed injury.

He did return on the Pirates’ last drive.

“He’s a good player for us, and maybe it does disrupt the timing a little bit, but I thought (Brian) Trofy did a good job in his place (three carries, 16 yards),” Fayetteville coach Dave Moneypenny said.

The Pirates started their way back when Fruit hooked up with Vernon Farrell on a pass-and-catch covering 41 yards. Farrell fumbled the ball but was able to retrieve the it in a scrum with two Oak Hill players.

After a key roughing the passer call on Oak Hill, making what would have been a fourth-and-10 and first down, Jordan Roark scored on a four-yard run to cut it to seven.

Fayetteville’s Trey Hopkins then recovered an onside kick, setting up the last sequence of events.

Both Lawson and Phillip Cox, a Woodrow Wilson transfer by way of Georgia (where he moved after football season last fall), scored on their first carries of the season.

Cox scored on an 80-yard run on Oak Hill’s first play from scrimmage.

On the next series, it was Lawson who scampered in from 33 yards out to give Oak Hill a 13-0 lead.

Lawson’s score was set up by an Alex Ashley fumble recovery.

Fayetteville scored the last two TDs of the half, one the Lawson fumble that was snatched up by Weis, who went 76 yards the other way for the Pirates’ first score.

The Pirates got another break when Cox, in punt formation, mishandled the snap and came up four yards short of the 16 necessary to keep possession.

Weis scored with 3:24 left in the half to make it 14-13 Fayetteville at the break.

“I’m not disappointed with the way our kids played,” said Moneypenny, who said the Oak Hill game would be Fayetteville’s toughest of the season. “If we play our next nine games the way we played tonight, we’ll be OK. I’m proud of the way we fought.”

Cox, on the strength of his 80-yard run, finished with 112 yards to lead all rushers.

“He had some conditioning issues,” Harris said. “But when he was in there, he was a presence for us.”

Quarterback B.J. Wallace completed 4-of-6 for Oak Hill for 102 yards.

Fruit, on the other side, completed 7-of-16 for 105 yards.

Fayetteville is at Midland Trail next week while Oak Hill visits Mount Hope.

— E-mail: demorrison@

register-herald.com



Oak Hill 28, Fayetteville 21

F (0-1) 0 14 0 7 — 21

OH (1-0) 13 0 15 0 — 28

First Quarter

OH — Phillip Cox 80 run (Chris Lawson kick), 5:48

OH — Lawson 33 run (kick failed), 3:53

Second Quarter

F — Drew Weis 76 fumble recovery (Michael Hernandez kick)

F — Weis 5 run (Hernandez kick)

Third Quarter

OH — Lawson 3 run (Cox pass from B.J. Wallace), 7:25

OH — Lawson 25 run (Lawson kick), 0:52

Fourth Quarter

F — Jordan Roark 5 run (Hernandez kick), 3:33

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING — F: Weis 16-104-1, Trey Hopkins 3-4, Roark 5-20-1, Brian Trofy 3-16, Stephen Fruit 5(-16). OH: Lawson 19-94, Wallace 4-41, Josh Murray 6-28, Phillip Cox 6-112, Dwayne Hopkins 2-8, Marrcellus McFarland 2(-22).

PASSING — F: Fruit 7-16-1-105-0. OH: Wallace 4-6-0-102-0.

RECEIVING — F: Vernon Farrell 3-60, K.C. Dempsey 1-29, Roark 2-2, Hopkins 1-14 . OH: Marcus McFarland 2-46, Rmykal McDowell 1-37, Lawson 1-19.

TURNOVERS — F: Weis (FR), Hopkins (OKR). OH: Alex Ashley (FR), Lawson (INT).