PURVIS - It was only fitting for the Battle for Highway 589 to come down to the final seconds.
As Purvis drove inside Sumrall's 30-yard line, hoping to erase a 14-point deficit, the Bobcat defense answered the call as it had all night. Braelyn Harrison came down with an interception to seal Sumrall's 21-13 win over the Tornadoes.
"(Purvis) came out and played a tougher second half, but when the chips were down, we held on," Sumrall coach Shannon White said. "Defensively, I couldn't be more proud of them. I thought offensively, it was a good night. We had some opportunities and fourth down, but we didn't convert. Nevertheless, we beat Purvis at Purvis, and that's always a good thing."
Sumrall's defense entered the matchup fresh off, surrendering 53 points and over 600 rushing yards last week in a loss to Lawrence County. White's message to his defense was simple, which was to not give up a similar result to Purvis' running back Moses Cummings, who entered the game with over 1,100 rushing yards on the season.
Sure enough, the Bobcat defense answered the call as it held Cummings to 93 yards by the end of the game. It's just the second time this season that the star back was held to under 100 yards. Yet what was even more impressive was the defense's first-half performance, which held the Tornadoes to nine yards of total offense.
"They were challenged all week," White said. "After last week, we weren't going to repeat that. We were going to tackle a good running back. (Cummings) had some runs for sure. He's too good not to, but overall, I thought we did a good job on him. He's an outstanding back.
The defensive effort allowed Sumrall (4-3, 1-1) to jump out to a 14-0 lead at the half. After turning the ball over on downs inside Purvis' 10-yard line, the Bobcats bounced back, with quarterback Landon Hawkins finding Jaycree Washington for a 63-yard reception. This set up a 10-yard rushing touchdown for running back Malek McNair, who finished the game with 152 yards on 16 touches.
"Malek sees it well and hits it hard," White said. "He's got great vision. I'm really proud of Malek. He brings some speed, and all of those were inside runs."
Then, in the second quarter, McNair erupted for a 63-yard run to set up Hawkins connecting with Jonathan Nelson for a 17-yard touchdown. Hawkins tossed for 143 yards and finished 12-for-20.
At the same time, Purvis (4-3, 1-1) didn't do itself many favors with a pair of snaps that went over quarterback Jojo Parker's head, killing a pair of drives. In addition, the Tornadoes were penalized 10 times for 61 yards by the end of the game. Notably, seven of those penalties came in the first half.
"We showed a lot of fight in the second half, but we couldn't get out of our own way in the first half," Purvis coach Brad Hankins said. "We kind of had it stuck in reverse. We didn't get it going, and we weren't very focused, I didn't think.
"A lot (of penalties). That's on me, and that's something we have got to fix. We have to fix our focus. That's what a lot of it is."
However, the Tornadoes caught a break just before the end of the second quarter. As Sumrall had the ball on third and goal at Purvis' 1-yard line, a bad snap pushed the Bobcats back to the 12-yard line. As Sumrall hoped to settle for a field goal, Purvis blocked the kick as time expired.
Purvis retained the momentum after forcing Sumrall to go three-and-out on its first drive in the third quarter. The Tornadoes put together a 9-play, 76-yard drive, with Cummings accounting for 59 of those yards and Parker capitalizing with a 1-yard run touchdown run to narrow the score to 14-7.
"We missed some blocks, and they have a freaking good defense," said Hankins on why his run game couldn't find momentum. Those (Sumrall) guys get after it.
"We knew going in that it was a physical ball game, and it was."
After another three-and-out, Purvis put together another quick drive, with Parker hitting his brother Jacob for a 51-yard touchdown pass on the first play in the fourth quarter. However, a failed PAT kept the Bobcats in front, leaving the score at 14-13. Parker finished the game 8 of 19 and threw for 139 yards, a touchdown and an interception.
Sumrall then answered with a 27-yard run by Hawkins, setting up a 5-yard touchdown run for Trevor Daniels, which pushed the score to 21-13. From there, the Bobcat defense turned away three more times and killed two of Purvis' drives by stopping the Tornadoes on fourth down.
"Purvis did a good job in the 2-minute offense, but we didn't give up the big play," White said. "They took the five-yard and eight-yard plays. We were able to cover well. It was a good week of practice for us. I thought yesterday and today that our approach to practice and gameday was a lot better. I think the focus was a lot better.
"(The region) is up for grabs. We are 1-1 with two games to go. There is no team that's out of it. Somebody is going home. We did ourselves a favor tonight."
Sumrall will return home to host Columbia next week, while Purvis will travel to face Lawrence County.
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