MERIDIAN — The Pillow Academy defense simply had no answer for Lamar Christian School’s rushing attack.
Lamar carved up the Mustangs for 402 yards on the ground en route to a 55-34 victory here Friday night in the State AAAA, Division II semifinals.
The Mustangs finish the season at 8-4, while the Raiders (8-4) advance to the state championship game to face Oak Forest, which defeated Washington School 20-17 Friday night.
“We wanted to play for a state championship so obviously this hurts,” said third-year Pillow head coach Tripp McCarty. “You will have your tail between your legs when you give up 50-something points, but we can still take a lot of positives from this season.
“We went undefeated at home. We won our conference. We won a playoff game. We saw a lot of kids get better from the start of the season.”
“(Pillow Academy) is a good team, and they never quit. They kept coming back,” Lamar coach Mac Barnes said. “I don’t think we punted but one time tonight.”
The PA defense stopped Lamar just twice on its first 10 possessions, forcing a punt in the first half and picking off a pass in the second.
Outside of that, the Raiders scored a touchdown every time they had the ball.
“Offensively, we played well enough to win. Defensively, obviously we didn’t,” McCarty said. “We got whipped up front. We missed tackles. We took poor angles, and we struggled getting some edges set.”
Pillow rolled up 395 yards as senior quarterback Cole Whitfield threw for 176 yards and a pair of touchdowns and ran for 71 yards. Whitfield finished the season without throwing an interception on 99 attempts.
“That’s pretty darn incredible. It shows you how far Cole has come as a quarterback,” McCarty said.
Pillow quickly fell behind 14-0 before its offense could get rolling.
Whitfield converted a fourth-and-8, setting up a 3-yard touchdown run by senior running back John Madison Brooks with 11:53 left in the second quarter to make it 14-6.
After a 6-yard TD run by Davis Harrison, Brooks scored the second of his three touchdowns on a 3-yard run with 1:09 left in the second quarter to trim Lamar’s lead to 20-13.
And just when it looked like the Mustangs might go into the half with the momentum, Joseph Hutchinson changed all that in only one play. He had a 58-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Will Roberts, who caught it at the PA 30-yard line before racing into the end zone.
Lamar led 27-13 at the half.
On the second play of the second half, Hutchinson found Harrison for a 9-yard pass that Harrison turned into a 68-yard touchdown reception after the quarterback-turned-receiver outran the Mustang defense, making the score 34-13.
However, Whitfield answered with a 33-yard scoring toss to junior wide receiver Eli Burton with 9:27 remaining in the third to put the score at 34-20.
Brooks’ interception of Hutchinson late in the third quarter turned into a touchdown when Whitfield connected with senior wide receiver Woods Rose for a 9-yard touchdown with 2:06 remaining in the third to make the score 41-27.
With 9:26 left in the fourth, Harrison ran 21 yards for his fourth touchdown of the game, putting Lamar School ahead 48-27. McClelland scored with a 12-yard run with 3:11 to make the score 55-27.
Brooks capped the game’s scoring with a 30-yard run with 1:20 remaining in the fourth.
Brooks finished with 104 yards on 14 carries — giving him 1,083 yards and 16 touchdowns on 140 attempts for the year.
Burton led all receivers with seven catches for 121 yards. Senior Cleveland Totten had two grabs for 32 yards.
nContact Bill Burrus at 581-7237 or bburrus@gwcommonwealth.com. Follow on Twitter:@Bill_Burrus.
