By Marco Clark
The Gators did not end their football season as they would have liked, but nevertheless put up a great fight for the most memorable game of the year for both the team and their loyal fans. Lakeview got off to a great start returning the opening kickoff to the Panthers’ 45-yard line. After two first downs, Dwaelon Shepard scored the game’s first touchdown. The 2-point attempt failed. On the next series, the Gators kicked off to the Panthers and stopped them on their own 35-yard line. The Gators defense took the field with inspired defense, forcing the Panthers to go three and out.
Once again, Lakeview struck quickly taking advantage with their speedy and tall wide receiver Dmondre Young who scored on a 15-yard touchdown pass from Shepherd. 12-0 Gators. The Panthers put points on the board before going into halftime making the score 12-6 Gators.
Coming out of halftime, the Panthers wasted little time advancing the ball to go in for the go-ahead score to tie it up 12-12. Lakeview players started showing fatigue as the allowed Bunkie to score a touchdown after only three plays into their offensive series. Lakeview 12, Panthers 20. The Gators were basically running on fumes but mustered enough energy and willpower to tie the game up at 20-20 to take them into overtime.
Lakeview started with the ball. Unfortunately, the running back ran into an official causing a fumble with Bunkie recovering the ball and taking it in to score the last touchdown of the game for a final of 26-20 Bunkie. Dwaelon Shepherd had 41 yards on 7 carries and 7 completions for 84 yards with 2 touchdowns for the night. Dmondre Young was on the receiving end of 5 of those catches for 68 yards and 1 touchdown. Jaylen Triplett Bell had 29 yards on 4 carries with 1 touchdown to end the chapter of Lakeview football for the 2017 season.
