No. 3 Seneca beats No. 1 Lamar 28-14 in Big 8 matchup
Sep. 15—LAMAR, Mo. — A game between two state-ranked Southwest Missouri schools lived up to the billing as Seneca, the No. 3 team in Class 3 football, beat Lamar, the No. 1 team in Class 2, 28-14 on Friday at Thomas M. O'Sullivan Field at Lamar High School.
Seneca broke the game open on the first drive of the second half.
The Indians started on their own 25-yard line and converted on two fourth downs during a 12-play 75-yard drive that ended with a 35-yard touchdown pass from the Indians senior quarterback Gavyn Hoover to Senior Blake Skelton.
Lamar and Seneca traded touchdowns in their first two possessions of the game.
Lamar struck first with an 11-play, 59-yard drive to take the 7-0 lead on a 25-yard pass from Tigers quarterback Cooper Haun to receiver Ian Ngugi on third down and 18.
That touchdown pass was the only pass Lamar threw on that drive.
Seneca came back with a 13-play 80-yard drive and scored on a 6-yard touchdown pass from Hoover to Junior Orry Jones. The two-point conversion made the score 8-7 Seneca.
The only scoring in the second quarter came on an interception of a Lamar pass by Seneca's sophomore Brody Probert, who returned the ball 59 yards for a pick 6.
The failed two-point attempt made the score 14-7. Probert had a second interception in the game that ended a drive by Lamar in the fourth quarter.
Seneca's final score came at the end of a 91-yard drive that took 15 plays for the Indians. The two-point conversion made the score at that point 28-7 with 9:28 left in the game.
Seneca's defense clamped down and forced Lamar to punt on its next drive.
Lamar scored its last touchdown on a final drive with less than two minutes to go to make the final score 28-14.
Lamar finished with 96 yards of offense on the ground and 73 through the air for 169 total yards while Seneca had 180 yards on the ground and 134 through the air for 314 total yards.
Lamar falls to 3-1 on the season, and Seneca moves to 4-0.
