Two months ago, Leflore County was sitting at 1-3 after suffering a 28-26 loss at Gentry. Then a postgame speech lit a spark under the Tigers (10-3), who have since rattled off nine wins in a row en route to their first state championship appearance in school history Saturday in Hattiesburg.
“After we lost at Gentry, we sat and talked in the locker room about not losing any more games,” said sophomore wide receiver Tavian Dean, who caught the game-winning touchdown pass in last week’s 24-22 win at Charleston in the North State championship. “We had a real-deal talk.”
The man with the motivating words? Not a coach, but senior leader Ivory Lampkin, a 5-foot-6, 235-pound fullback/linebacker affectionately known as “Tank” by his teammates.
“I always knew the potential of every last one of my guys,” Lampkin said. “After that loss right there, I knew then that we had the potential to go farther. I told them that we had the talent to go to state. They rallied behind me, I had their back and they had mine. We’re in the ‘Burg now.”
Since the close defeat at Gentry, Leflore has come up clutch in the fourth quarter or overtime of tight games. The Tigers’ last three playoff matchups have been decided by one possession or less, and their past two games have been decided by a combined three points.
Lampkin’s poise, confidence and playmaking on both sides of the ball has been a big part of Leflore’s late-game success.
A physical, downhill runner, Lampkin perfectly complements the speedier style of senior Dekari “Turbo” Johnson and junior Dezmond Ray to create a three-headed monster in the backfield.
“If you need a first down, I got you,” Lampkin said. “You go 100 miles per hour with Turbo and Dezmond and then you come down with power, they don’t know how to adjust to it. It’s been helping us all year.”
Lampkin has totaled 266 rushing yards on 35 carries while adding a pair of 2-point receptions and 51 tackles on defense this season. Two weeks ago at East Webster, he led the defense with 10 tackles while adding 40 rushing yards and a touchdown in the Tigers’ 14-13 victory over the Wolverines.
“We have great kids here,” fifth-year head coach Eric House said at Monday’s virtual media session. “We started the season 1-3, but the kids kept believing in the coaching staff and kept believing in themselves. We started taking it one game at a time, and when we looked up, we had reeled off nine straight wins. We don’t have a lot of seniors, but the few we have go both ways and they lay it on the line every Friday night.”
- Contact Riley Overend at 662-581-7237 or roverend@gwcommonwealth.com. Follow @OverendOut on Twitter.
