Telegraph Staff Writer
With only one starter returning from the previous season, it would be natural for people to expect a rebuilding year for the Lake Butler Middle School football team.
However, the Tigers weren’t rebuilding. They were reloading.
Lake Butler won its second straight Suwannee Middle Athletic Conference championship on Oct. 19, defeating visiting Keystone Heights 12-8.
“It feels great. Absolutely great,” Lake Butler Head Coach Bill Lang said. “Everybody counted us out before the season started, but we worked hard, and here we are.”
Clifton Ivey had a big night for the Tigers, rushing for 127 yards and two touchdowns on 18 carries, but Lake Butler’s defense held the Indians out of the end zone after they scored on the game’s opening drive. Keystone drove inside the Lake On all but one of their remaining four possessions, the Indians drove inside the Lake Butler 30-yard line. Two of those drives extended into the red zone, including the game’s final drive, when Keystone ran one last play from the Tigers’ 13-yard line. Quarterback Baylor Ford was chased out of the pocket and held well short of the end zone on a run play.
“The defense carried us (this season),” Lang said. “We struggled sometimes on offense. We could score 30 points a game, but then there were games like this, where we had to rely on our defense. That was the difference tonight.”
Dane Johnson made a big play for the Tigers’ defense when he tackled Keystone’s Bryce Miller for a 3-yard loss on the second play of the game. That set up third-and-9, but Lake Butler jumped offsides. The result was that the Indians converted on third-and-4, with Miller, who finished with almost 60 yards on 10 carries, gaining 7 yards to the Lake Butler 42.
Logan Johnson then made two straight tackles for the Tigers, holding Zane Leger to no gain on one run play and Jackson Parmeter to a 1-yard gain on another run play. However, the Indians’ Ford hit a wide-open Jon Ulsch for a 41-yard touchdown pass. Parmeter found the end zone on the following two-point conversion as the Indians led 8-0 with 4:09 to play in the opening quarter.
The play helped Ford, who was 4-of-6, finish with 86 yards passing.
The Tigers answered with an eight-play, 51-yard touchdown drive, with Ivey doing most of the work. He carried the ball six times for 50 yards, with his final run carrying him into the end zone from 5 yards out. Quarterback Wyatt Barber attempted a pass on the two-point conversion, but he was gang tackled as he rolled out of the pocket and failed to find a receiver to throw to. That left Lake Butler trailing 8-6 with 17 seconds left in the first quarter.
A 12-yard run by Parmeter helped Keystone drive to the Lake Butler 27 on the ensuing series, but the Indians hurt themselves with an illegal-procedure penalty before Ford was sacked by the Tigers’ Logan Johnson for a loss of 9 yards. Keystone went for it on fourth-and-13 from the 30, with Lake Butler’s Wyatt Elixson intercepting a pass.
Receptions of 27 yards and 9 yards by Drew Simmons and Erick Lassiter, respectively, had the Tigers across midfield at the Keystone 37. A roughing-the-passer penalty moved the Tigers to the 22. Ford had a near interception for Keystone, while Ivey was held to a 3-yard gain, setting up third-and-7. Leger made his way into the backfield and batted down a pass on third down before Ford broke up a fourth-down pass to Simmons inside the 5-yard line.
The Indians, after the turnover on downs, got two run plays totaling 36 yards by Miller as well as a 12-yard reception by Miller. A lateral attempt hit the ground, though, with Lake Butler’s Barber scooping up the loose ball and returning it to the Keystone 20-yard line with five seconds remaining until halftime.
Lake Butler couldn’t capitalize, with Keystone’s Destin Harnage intercepted a pass on the last play of the half.
The Tigers turned to Ivey on the first play of the second half, and he delivered. He had seven carries for 63 yards, including a 36-yard run to the Keystone 2-yard line. A penalty backed Lake Butler up 5 yards, but Ivey would eventually score on a 3-yard run to put Lake Butler ahead 12-8 with 3:46 to play in the third quarter. Ivey was tackled short of the end zone by Jabari Reid on the two-point play.
Runs by Leger, Miller and Parmeter helped Keystone march from the 50 to the Lake Butler 25. A Ford run later set up fourth-and-3 at the 18. The Indians went for it, but as soon as Miller took the handoff from Ford, he had Simmons draped all over him for a loss of 2 yards.
Lake Butler gained a first down on the following series before Keystone’s defense made several big plays. Luke Bacorn lead a group effort in tackling Ivey for no gain on one play, while Ford tackled Simmons for no gain on a pass play. Doug Paiva sacked Barber to force the Tigers to punt on fourth-and-15 from their own 25. Simmons kicked the ball over the head of Miller, who was back to return. Miller retreated before scooping up the ball at his own 35.
“That was a great punt,” Lang said. “He’s never punted that far before.”
Miller had a 10-yard return on the punt, but a penalty had the Keystone offense starting out at its own 35 with 2:44 to play. An 11-yard run by Ford converted a third-and-7 play and gave the Indians a first down at the 49. Three plays later, the Indians faced fourth-and-8 from the Lake Butler 49. Miller caught a pass for a first down, but officials had penalized the Indians for illegal procedure. On fourth-and-13, Ford hooked up with Leger, who broke a couple of tackles as he gained 25 yards to the 29-yard line.
After spiking the ball to kill the clock, Ford ran for a gain of 3 yards, but failed to get out of bounds. He spiked the ball again, setting up fourth-and-7 with six seconds left. Lake Butler was penalized for pass interference, giving the Indians one last play from the 13-yard line with no time on the clock.
That left it up to the Lake Butler defense, which came through, demonstrating what Lang said was so key to this year’s success. He described his team as resilient and one that always fights, even when things aren’t going right.
Things didn’t go right at the very start of the season, as the Tigers dropped their first game to Suwannee by a score of 8-0.
All they did after that was win. No small feat for a team that lost 31 eighth-graders from 2020.
The Tigers lose 18 eighth-graders this season.
Can Lake Butler make it a SMAC three-peat next season? Lang, of course, doesn’t know the answer to that, but what he does know is that his players will have to do their part to make it a possibility.
“It’ll just take a lot of hard work,” he said.
If the Tigers do that, you might not want to count them out like some did this year. Lake Butler might just prove a lot of people wrong.
