TAMPA — Playing in a nine-team district leaves little margin for error, which Hillsborough found out last year after dropping its first two games to Jefferson and Armwood and spending the rest of the season hoping one of them would lose.
Neither did.
This season, the only scoreboard the Terriers will need to worry about will be the one on the field they play on.
Thanks to a Herculean second-half effort from star quarterback Dwayne Lawson and its unsung defense, the Terriers knocked off Jefferson 33-24 Friday night at Chelo Huerta Field.
The Terriers (1-0) avenged a season-opening loss to the Dragons that effectively wrecked their season.
“That Jefferson game has been on us for 365 days,” said Hillsborough coach Earl Garcia. “It was killing us.”
Jefferson will now likely have to beat Armwood and hope Hillsborough loses another district game to have any playoff possibilities. The Terriers won despite losing standout receiver Anthony King to a knee injury, suffered on a kick return, in the first half and trailed 17-13 at halftime.
The Dragons (1-1) had a chance to put the Terriers in a deeper hole, grinding out a 17-play drive that took 7:23 off the clock to start the third quarter. But they had to settle for a field goal attempt, which sailed wide.
“We told our football team that the team that wanted to win it most would win,” Garcia said. “We were down eight at the half last year, and this time it was four. We told them it was our turn.”
Hillsborough took over the ball, and Lawson scrambled spectacularly for a 53-yard touchdown a few plays later to give the Terriers a short-lived advantage, because Antonio Nunn took the ensuing kickoff back 75 yards to restore Jefferson to a 24-20 lead.
But that was the Dragons’ last gasp, and Lawson was just getting started. He drove the Terriers 80 yards on their next possession, completing 7 of 10 passes to set up a Michael Duclos 10-yard touchdown run to put Hillsborough ahead 27-24 with 11 minutes left.
Then Hillsborough recovered the insides kick, and scored on a 14-play, 44-yard drive that ate up six minutes off the clock.
Lawson, a Miami commitment, used his legs to convert a fourth-and-4, and his arm to complete an 11-yard pass on fourth and goal to Xavier Byrd, who made a terrific diving catch in the end zone. The Terriers defense, led by Justin Moore, Armand Chalk and Azeez Al-Shaair, was stout in the second half.
While Lawson was completing 13 of 21 for 135 yards and combining with Duclos to rush for over 100 yards in the second half, Jefferson managed just 27 rushing yards and 22 passing.
After its seven-minute drive to open the second half, the Dragons had the ball on offense for less than three minutes.
Lawson finished 23 for 36 passing for 244 yards, while rushing 18 times for 104 yards.