Bobby Lamb, Mercer pull out win over Furman

GREENVILLE, S.C. -- It was a lot more difficult late in the game than Bobby Lamb would have liked, but it was special nonetheless.

Mercer's head coach saw his team lose a big third-quarter lead and have to go to overtime with Furman, Lamb's alma mater, on Saturday at Paladin Stadium. But the Bears recovered in the extra period to pull out a 27-20 win.

Mercer improves to 5-5 overall and 2-4 in Southern Conference play with its second straight exciting conference win. The Bears wrap up their season this week with a home game against Samford and Macon native Chris Hatcher.

"First of all, I about had a heart attack in the fourth quarter. As I told the team, we tried to lose this game maybe three times in the fourth quarter," Lamb said. "We did some uncharacteristic things (Saturday). No. 1, we turned it over, and No. 2, we had penalties. But I'm proud of the way we came back and played there late in the overtime period. I'm proud of our defense for getting the interception. Furman did a good job of getting back into the game in the second half. We really dominated the first half.

"It's just a big, big win, another momentum boost to get us to the next game, so hopefully, we can finish 6-5."

Lamb played for Furman and coached as an assistant and the head coach for the program before taking over at Mercer in 2011 and building the Bears' program from scratch. Saturday was his first game back at his alma mater.

"You know, you spend 29 years on that sideline over there, and you've seen a lot of things happen here at this university, and you graduated here. It's a special place," Lamb said. "But at the end of the day, what happens is, they're in our conference, and they're kind of the enemy, and we recruit against them and play them.

"It was very difficult when we first got here, but once the game got going, things worked out."

Things certainly worked out in overtime.

Mercer led 20-0 in the third quarter only to see the Paladins (4-6, 2-4) storm back and force a tie. The Paladins scored a touchdown with 43 seconds left, but Kealand Dirks was called for an unsportsmanlike penalty after his 2-yard run, moving back the extra point 15 yards. Jon Croft Hollingsworth missed the extra point, and the Bears decided to play for overtime after two incomplete passes to start their next drive.

Mercer went on offense first in overtime and gave the ball to Alex Lakes three times, gaining 15, 8 and 2 yards for the lead. Lakes finished with 141 yards rushing, while Tee Mitchell had 112 as Mercer rolled up 286 yards rushing.

"We just ran power every play in overtime, and we knew that had been working early on in the game," Lakes said. "So we figured we'd go back to it and see if they could stop it and make adjustments, but they didn't. So we just kept on with it."

Furman got its chance in overtime, but on the first play, Mercer safety Zach Jackson intercepted a pass from PJ Blazejowski to end the game at the 2.

"I just read the quarterback. They had been running that play all game, and I had been late getting over there," Jackson said. "Shoot, this time the ball came to me, and I went and got it."

This story was originally published November 14, 2015 at 7:54 PM.