PHOTOS BY RICHARD AKRIDGE Senior running back Brode DuBose hurdles would-be tacklers during one of his 33 carries. He finished the game with 171 yards and two touchdown runs. The Badgers are no longer concerned with snapping their twoyear losing streak.

Now they are focused on beginning a winning one.

After losing 20 consecutive games, Lampasas used a relentless rushing attack to chip away at the visiting Manor Mustangs and eventually broke the wild stallions, scoring the game-winning touchdown with 4:34 left in the contest.

For the first time in a long time, the Badgers are 1-0 following the 21-14 season-opening victory.

"This is going to help [the team's psyche] tremendously," first-year head coach Joey McQueen said. "We had some adversity tonight, and we could have shut it down.

"A lot of kids find a way to keep from losing; tonight, our kids found a way to win. That's why it's going to help a whole lot."

The Badgers definitely had to fight to claim the victory.

Coming into the fourth quarter, Lampasas held a seven-point advantage at 14- 7, but Manor quickly knotted things up as quarterback LaDarrien Williams connected with Devin Boynton on a 13-yard touchdown pass on the first play of the period.

Carter Burks, left, and Rush Seaver pressure Manor quarterback LaDarrien Williams. Then the Badgers showed their fight, marching 70 yards in 15 plays for the go-ahead score, a two-yard touchdown from Brode DuBose.

The senior running back was responsible for a game-high 171 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

With just over four minutes left on the clock, the Mustangs began engineering a drive of their own, taking the ball down to the Badgers' 24-yard line before Josh Woods made a game-saving interception with 1:14 remaining.

Or so it appeared.

On second-and-eight with under a minute left, DuBose broke free and sprinted to midfield, but a defender ran him down from behind and stripped the ball, which allowed Manor to reclaim possession with 47 seconds left to play.

"I probably should have been smarter and told Brode after he got the first down to just go down," McQueen said. "But he saw [it was] wide open, and the guy came and did a good job of stripping him.

Aaron Reyna sprints down the sideline on his way to a 50- yard touchdown in the second quarter. "Sometimes you assume he might know that, and we didn't tell him. He did exactly what he should have done and go for the goal line."

Starting at his own 47-yard line, Williams took the Mustangs down to the Badgers' 18-yard line with a 12-yard completion and a pair of runs that covered 23 yards.

On second-and-eight, Williams' pass was batted down by defensive tackle Carter Burks, who lived up to his nickname of Big Swat.

Burks finished with two solo tackles and assisted on five others. Inside linebackers Rush Seaver and Edward Hall finished with five solo and eight assists apiece to lead the defense.

The next play, Williams threw the ball away under pressure.

Then, on fourth down, with the game on the line, Williams fired a pass to Statron Jones at the front corner of the end zone, but it was waived off after an official determined Jones stepped out of bounds.

"I thought it was a good call," McQueen said jokingly. "I don't know if it was or not, but it looked like he caught it on the pylon."

After the play, however, the incompletion was the furthest thing from anyone's mind.

Williams lay motionless, face down in the turf, for several minutes and had to be carted off the field and taken to the hospital after feeling tingling sensations. He did have movement in his limbs, however, and is doing fine following further evaluation.

The precautionary move led the teams to end the game prematurely with six seconds left to play.

"It kind of dampened the victory but, at the same time, you've got to take care of the kids," McQueen said. "After that, our crowd responded to [the victory]."

Williams accounted for 257 (160 passing, 97 rushing) of the Mustangs' 277 yards of offense.

Although the Badgers won the game, they did not have the start they desired.

Manor took the ball 76 yards on its first possession, as Jones turned a short catch into a long run and broke free at midfield for a 59-yard touchdown.

Lampasas answered by turning the ball over on downs, but it responded by forcing the Mustangs to go three-and-out on their next drive.

DuBose tallied his first touchdown of the season on the next drive when he capped off a 12- play series with a 10-yard scoring run.

Manor worked its way into Badger territory on the following possession, but outside linebacker Blaine White turned the tide with an interception on fourth down.

The Badgers needed just one play to capitalize. They scored on the first play from scrimmage off an Aaron Reyna burst down the right sideline to take a 14-7 lead.

"It was a tackle trap," McQueen said. "We'd been running the isolation so much that we just isolated and gave the trap back inside."

Lampasas took the lead into halftime.

After the break, the second half started out shaky for the Badgers.

Vann Millican fumbled a snap and turned the ball over.

The Badgers held their own defensively, forcing Manor to punt, but a bobbled catch was recovered by the Mustangs, which gave them prime field position on the Badgers' 29-yard line.

Senior outside linebacker Jeffrey Arevalo ended the Mustangs' hopes of scoring with an interception near the goal line.

"We had the momentum, but then we had that punt where we touched it and gave them momentum back. But we had three interceptions tonight, and all three were big ones on key stops," McQueen said. "It's one of those things where we can bend, but we can't break."

Lampasas took the ball down to the Mustangs' 44-yard line on the next possession but turned it back over when Colton Perkins tossed an interception on the Badgers' first and only pass attempt of the game. That led to Manor's game-tying touchdown to open the fourth quarter.

Despite the close call, McQueen knows his game plan of running the ball and controlling the clock is paying off.

"If we get 18-play drives [lasting seven or eight] minutes, the key is to score at the end of them," McQueen said. "If we can do that, we have a chance to win every night."

Lampasas' defensive coordinator Jimmy Randolph agreed, noting that the long possessions on offense allow his defense to be well rested when they take to the field.

The Badgers will look to continue their winning ways when they begin a two-week stint away from home this Friday at Rockdale. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

Game Stats

Score By Quarters

Lampasas	0	14	0	7 — 21
Manor	7	0	0	7 — 14

Scoring Summary

First Quarter MHS — LaDarrien Williams 59-yard pass to Statron Jones (Eric Armendariz kick) Second Quarter LHS — Brode DuBose 10-yard run (Colton Perkins kick)

LHS — Aaron Reyna 50-yard run (Perkins kick) Third Quarter NONE Fourth Quarter MHS — Williams 13-yard pass to Devin Boynton (Armendariz kick) LHS — DuBose 2-yard run (Perkins kick)

Team Stats

	LHS	MHS
First Downs	13	12
Rushing Yards	280	117
Passing Yards	0	160
Total Yards	280	277
C-A-I	0-1-1	9-21-3
Fumbles-Lost	4-2	2-0
Punts	0	2
Penalties-Yards	3-15	14-95

Individual Stats

Rushing — LHS: DuBose 33-171,
Reyna 2-59, Gabe Terrell 7-35, Colton
Perkins 4-9, Edward Hall 1-4, Vann
Millican 1- -1. MHS — Williams 20-97,
Jaquan Sorrells 6-15, Jamers Perry 3-
2, Xavier Mays 1-2, Jones 1-1.
Passing — LHS: Perkins 0-1-1-0.
MHS: Williams 9-21-3-160.
Receiving — LHS: NONE. MHS:
Jones 3-82, Boynton 4-44, Reginald
Middleton 2-34.
Missed field goals — NONE