Pirates break streak, beat Bucks

It took a while, but the Sneads Pirates finally got a win away from home.

The Pirates traveled to Panama City Friday night and took a 38-30 victory over the Bozeman Bucks, breaking a nine-game road losing streak.

It was the first road win for the Pirates since 2007.

“That was a big win for the program,” Sneads coach Don Dowling said after the game.

“We hadn’t had a win on the road in a long time. The kids talked all week about breaking the streak and we broke it tonight. We had some folks step up and make big plays.”

Senior star Mark Lawson made his last high school road game count with 150 rushing yards and three touchdowns.

Lawson also put an exclamation point on the win with a 60-yard interception return for a touchdown on the last play of the game.

Fellow senior Jeff Davis chipped in 101 yards and a touchdown to give the Pirates a pair of 100-yard rushers.

“Mark had a big game. I told him all week long that if we could turn the corner we could put some points on the board and Mark was able to do that,” Dowling said. “To have two backs over 100 yards, that’s pretty sporty.”

Sneads had to overcome a big effort from Bozeman quarterback Travis Register, who passed for 311 yards for the game.

The Pirates helped offset some of Register’s damage with five sacks on him for the game.

SHS led 18-14 at halftime, with a 70-yard TD pass from Terrence Green to Anthony Dawkins helping the Pirates to a 32-23 lead going into the fourth period.

After the Bucks cut the lead to 32-30 with a touchdown, the Pirates were able to milk the clock and pin Bozeman at its own 1-yard line with under a minute to play.

The Bucks picked up a first down to get out of the shadow of their endzone, but Register was forced to fling a long prayer with four seconds on the clock that was picked off by Lawson.

The Pirates improved to 5-4 with the victory.

They can finish the season with a winning record with a victory next week over the Marianna Bulldogs in Sneads.

“That would be a big for us,” Dowling said. “We reached a goal to finally win one on the road. If we could get one more win, we’d reach our goal of having a winning season. It’s also a big game just because it’s a county game.”