FRANKLINTON, La. — The Brookhaven Academy offense has beensuspect at times this season becasue the Cougars have dropped twoof their three losses in overtime. Both losses were a result of theoffense failing to put points on the board in close games. Fridaynight’s game with Bowling Green found the Cougars in another closegame, but on this night, the Cougar offense was proud to answer thechallenge.

Brookhaven outscored Bowling Green 35-34 in a knock-down,drag-out battle that wasn’t decided until Brookhaven quarterbackDaniel Lofton found wide out Jeremy James in the corner of the endzone for an 8-yard touchdown pass with just 5 seconds remaining inthe game. Brookhaven improved to 5-3 on the season and spoiledhomecoming for the Buccaneers as they fell to 4-4 on the year.

Brookhaven Academy head coach Bo Milton knew his team would bein for a tough battle, and the game did not start out to his likingas it took just 10 seconds for the Bucs to score the firsttouchdown of the game. Bowling Green kicked off to Brookhaven tostart the game, but a Cougar fumble allowed Adam Simmons to scoopup the loose ball and scamper 20 yards for the score, giving thehosts a 6-0 advantage.

Brookhaven answered on their ensuing drive, marching 76 yards in7 plays before Kolby Byrd scored on an 11 yard run with 9:36showing on the clock. Nathaniel Sbravati added the extra point,giving the Cougars a 7-6 lead.

Bowling Green came right back with a long, clock-eating drivethat was capped off by David Fulks scoring on a 3 yard run with2:34 left in the first quarter. The two point conversion attemptfailed, giving the Bucs a 12-7 lead.

Brookhaven responded quickly and looked to take control of thegame in the second quarter as Lofton connected with Corey Dickersonon a 46 yard bomb with 10:54 showing. Seth Cliburn ran in the twopoint conversion, giving Brookhaven a 15-12 lead. The Cougars addedanother score when Byrd registered his second touchdown of thenight on a 1 yard run with 5:43 left. Sbravati added the extrapoint for a 22-12 Brookhaven lead at the half.

Bowling Green looked like a completely different team in thesecond half. The Bucs pounded out yardage on the ground for most ofthe third quarter before Kasey Cooley scored on an 11-yard run with4:12 remaining in the quarter. Kash Cooley found Josh Fauntleroyfor the two point conversion attempt, closing the Brookhaven leadto 22-20.

The Bucs took their first lead of the second half to begin awild and crazy fourth quarter as Jessie Milton scored on a 5 yardrun with 11:08 remaining in the game. Kasey Cooley added the twopoint conversion, giving the Bucs a 28-22 advantage.

Brookhaven responded with 7:14 left as Lofton picked up amishandled snap and found Cliburn in the end zone for a one yardscoring pass. Sbravati added his third extra point of the night,giving the Cougars a lead once again at 29-28.

After the kickoff pinned Bowling Green deep in its own territoryon the ensuing drive and a penalty pushed the Bucs back to theirown 7 yard line, Kasey Cooley darted through the Cougar defense andraced 93 yards for the apparent score. But another penalty againstthe Bucs gave the Brookhaven defense new life.

The Bucs simply responded with an 11 play, 95-yard drive thatate up six minutes of the game clock before Kash Cooley scored on a1 yard run to seemingly seal the deal for the Buccaneers. The twopoint conversion attempt failed, giving the hosts a 34-29 advantagewith just 1:37 left to play.

Lofton took the field and methodically marched his team 79 yardsin 8 plays. Time after time, Lofton found Dickerson on screenpasses, picking up valuable yardage and allowing the Cougars tostop the clock by getting out of bounds.

The Brookhaven drive almost met disaster as two straightincomplete passes put the Cougars in a fourth and 4 situation onthe Bowling Green 16 yard line. Lofton took the snap and appearedto be sacked but managed to find Byrd, who made a spectacular catchto pick up the Cougar first down at the Bowling Green 8 yard linewith 11 seconds left in the game.

On the very next play, Lofton calmly rolled to his left andlofted the ball to James in the corner of the end zone, sending theBrookhaven faithful into a frenzy.

“I don’t know what else I can say besides it was a heck of agame.” said Coach Milton. “We had to grow up a lot late in the gameand play hard against a very good team. We gave up 34 points butour defense kept us in it.

“I can’t say enough about Daniel (Lofton) and Corey(Dickerson).” added Milton. “Daniel played the best game hecould’ve played. That’s the best game for a quarterback I’ve seenin a while. And Corey made a lot of big plays catching thefootball. This should really help out our confidence as we getready to go in to the playoffs.”

Lofton finished the game, completing 19 of his 26 pass attemptsfor 254 yards and three touchdowns. He rushed the ball 19 times for138 yards. Dickerson caught 8 passes for 156 yards with onetouchdown. Kolby Byrd rushed the ball 15 times for 76 yards and twotouchdowns. He also caught five passes for 48 yards.

Kasey Cooley led Bowling Green with 19 carries for 80 yards anda touchdown. Kash Cooley followed with 16 carries for 80 yards anda touchdown of his own. Jessie Milton had 45 yards on 7 carrieswith a touchdown.

On defense, Byrd led Brookhaven with 15 tackles. Sbravatifollowed with 10 stops. Jeremy James added 7 tackles. Steven Wattsrecovered a fumble and Lofton recorded and interception.

Brookhaven travels to Columbia Academy Friday night in the finaldistrict game for both teams. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.