ferriday — A handful of Ferriday players fell to the playing surface with excitement, while other Trojan players, coaches, cheerleaders and fans hugged, shouted and jumped for joy when DeRius Jolla came down with Richard Jefferson’s two-point conversion pass to give the Trojans a 30-28 win over Lake Providence in overtime Friday night.

Lake Providence scored on its first overtime possession but committed a penalty on its first two-point conversion try, which was successful. On the second try the Ferriday defense was able to hold Panthers’ wide receiver Overton James 1-yard shy of the goal line to keep the Trojan deficit at six points.

Jefferson scampered around right end on the first offensive play for Ferriday, and the Trojans needed just the extra point to win the game. Place kicker Jarvis Brooks was 2-for-2 on extra points on the night, but after a Lake Providence timeout, Jefferson and Ferriday coach Richard Oliver decided to go for the two-point conversion instead of kicking the extra point.

Oliver said he knew Lake Providence called timeout to come up with a plan to come after the kick, and Jefferson said he knew exactly what play the Trojans should run.

“I told him, ‘Coach they will come to me (if I roll out), and they won’t know about Jolla,’” Jefferson said.

The Trojans had run the same play to tie the game on a two-point try in the fourth quarter, and it worked to perfection again as Jolla was standing wide open in the end zone to catch the winning score.

“It felt great, because I knew if he caught it, it would put us back in the running for a district championship,” Jefferson said.

Oliver said this was the first time he has won an overtime game as a head coach, and he was happy for himself, his coaches and the players.

“I am so proud of my kids,” he said. “We have a lot of guys banged up, but we pulled the game out. I am happy for my boys, because they could have gotten down.”

The Trojans might not have needed the overtime heroics of Jefferson and Jolla if it wasn’t for a wild end to regulation.

Ferriday got the ball at its own 15-yard-line with 6:11 to go in the game, and the score tied 22-22.

The Trojans put together a 15-play drive that took them down to the Lake Providence 1-yard line with less than 20 seconds left in the game. Jefferson ran a quarterback sneak on first and goal. The line judge signaled touchdown, but the referee called Jefferson down at the 1-yard-line. In the commotion of celebration and confusion, the referee spotted the ball for second down and started the clock. Ferriday was out of timeouts, and the clock ran out before the Trojans could get off a play.

“I thought he got in,” Oliver said. “We should have paid attention to what was going on. We were excited, and took too long.”

Ferriday did most of its damage offensively with big passing plays.

Jefferson finished his night with 218 yards passing and three touchdowns. All three of those touchdowns wound up in the hands of freshman receiver Adrian Wiggins, who caught four passes for 133 yards.

“We had a good game plan, and we wanted to take our shots when we could,” Oliver said.

Jefferson said he was happy to see the Trojans be aggressive on offense.

“The game plan was to go right at them, and I felt great,” he said. “I had good touch on the ball and felt great running and throwing.”

Ferriday ended the night with 433 yards of offense. The Trojans gave up 268 yards to the Lake Providence offense.

Ferriday started the scoring in the first quarter with a 27-yard strike from Jefferson to Wiggins.

Lake Providence answered in the second quarter with a 7-yard pass from Lamar Carraway to James. Carraway found Jaylon Willis in the end zone for the two-point conversion and Lake Providence led 8-7 midway through the second quarter.

Ferriday struck just before the half when Jefferson found Wiggins again, this time for 26-yards.

It only took Lake Providence 26 seconds to answer, however, as Carraway scored on a 1-yard run. The Panthers’ touchdown was set up one play earlier by a 53-yard pass from Carraway to Willis. Willis caught the two-point conversion, and Lake Providence led 16-14 at the half.

Carraway scored again on a 1-yard run on the Panthers’ first possession of the second half. The two-point conversion failed and Lake Providence led 22-14 with 6:26 to go in the third quarter.

Ferriday would tie the game with 8:24 left in the fourth on a 46-yard strike from Jefferson to Wiggins. Jefferson hit Jolla on the two-point conversion and tied the game 22-22. Ferriday’s final touchdown of regulation was set up by an interception by Jefferson that he returned 50 yards down to the Lake Providence 40 yard-line.

Carraway ended the night throwing four interceptions. Jefferson threw three interceptions of his own, and Ferriday also lost a fumble.

The win put Ferriday at 2-1 in District 2-2A and 4-4 overall. Lake Providence drops to 2-1 in the district and 4-4 overall.

Ferriday will travel to Sterlington next week.