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By GENE MOTLEY

Special to the News-Herald

MERRY HILL – Despite a whopping 315 yard rushing effort from workhorse tailback Ayden Foster here Friday night, Lawrence Academy came up short in their comeback attempt and ending up falling to St. David’s School, 26-20.

Foster’s effort was part of a night where the Warriors in Green-and-Gold racked up 355 total yards to 308 for the visiting Warriors from Raleigh. But LAW was also whistled for six costly penalties and suffered a drive-killing 4th quarter turnover.

The loss also came despite a second half played mostly in a rainstorm and was Lawrence’s first setback of the young high school season.

“We made too many mistakes,” sighed first-year coach Robert Brown afterward. “We gave it away with some dumb penalties and we didn’t tackle like we’ve been tackling in practice.

“We just have to put it away. We’re going to watch the film, see where the mistakes were and fix them when we practice. This one’s over and we have to get ready for Cary (Christian) next week,” he added.

Lawrence opened the game with an 11-play 63-yard drive, all on the ground with 10 of those carries by Foster; the last one an 11-yard scamper dragging defenders into the end zone. A two-point attempt failed, but LAW led it 6-0 and that score held for the entire first quarter.

After neither team could mount a scoring effort on their next drives on into the second quarter, St. David’s finally broke thru with a drive that started on their own 39 and ended with quarterback Spence Saik hitting McCauley Steele on a go-route resulting in six points. But the visitors’ conversion also failed and the score remained tied at 6-all.

On the ensuing kickoff, Warriors returner Eason Hunter brought it back 25 yards to the Lawrence 40-yard line to begin the drive. After two short running plays netted seven yards, Foster hit the hole and managed to break one up the middle; then he juked to the outside, outrunning defenders 53 yards to paydirt. The big play electrified the partisan home crowd and staked LAW back in the lead. When Xander Mcanaw ran around left side for the two-points, the Warriors held a 14-6 edge.

Lawrence kicked off to St. David’s, but the visitors never got a play off before lightning strikes in the Bertie night sky forced at least a 30-minute stoppage of play. When things resumed just before 8:35 pm, the Warriors got a three-and-out stop thanks to a sack by Lawrence’s Wyatt Spain.

Receiving the punt, LAW couldn’t finish the deal as they were stopped on fourth down on St. David’s 18 yard line. However, the visitors couldn’t close out the half with a score thanks to the Lawrence defense and LAW carried an eight-point 14-6 lead into their locker-room at halftime.

The fans were barely back in their seats from the mid-break when St. David’s opened the second half with a spectacular 87-yard kick-off return by Ben Young III. That run and a two-point conversion pass knotted the game at 14-14.

Following the kick-off, Lawrence went back to their short-yardage running game with none of those efforts for more than seven yards. They were able to march it down to the St. David’s 26 before a sack dropped them back to the 31, and they ended the possession turning it over on downs.

This time, St. David’s started on their own 23 and picked up five first-downs to the Lawrence 4-yard line where they ran it in for the visitors’ first lead of the night, 20-14.

It took just one play from scrimmage, starting on their own 36-yard line, for Foster to make another big-play, this one a 64 yard foot race to the end zone. The pass-attempt PAT was incomplete and the score remained tied, 20-all.

St. David’s turned the ball over on the ensuring possession thanks to a Hunter interception at the Lawrence 30. But the gift was returned five plays later when the Warriors fumbled it back to the visitors near mid-field.

St. David’s went back to the air on their first play for a 30-yard gain, and then after a couple of short runs, they hit a deep pattern that landed them at the one-yard line where a short plunge gave them a six-point lead, 26-20.

Lawrence started the comeback attempt at their own 23 yard line, but a pair of careless off-side penalties prevented them from making it even to mid-field. Their last gasp came when a short sprint to the outside ended them three-yards shy of a first down and St. David’s just ran out the final 1:47 to claim their second win of the season.

“It’s a learning process,” shrugged Brown. “We’ve taught a lot, but we’re nowhere near done.”

Lawrence (2-1 overall) takes to the road for their next two games: opening September play at Cary Christian on the 6th before a trip to Goldsboro and facing Wayne Christian on the 13th.