The fourth quarter of the Pike County and Barbour County high school football game Friday night was a comedy of errors. But nobody in purple and white left laughing. Pike County fell to Barbour County 34-20.

The Bulldogs coasted to a 14 point first half lead and seem to have the game under control

However, the Bulldogs came out flat in the second have and never regained the intensity the Dogs had in the first have.

Pike County Head Coach said it’s never over until it’s over. And it was not over in at the end of the second quarter.

“We’ll play a good game but you can’t ever let up,” he said. “We’ve got some young guys but they have enough experience to step up and finish a game. We didn’t do that tonight.

The Bulldogs held the Barbour County Jaguars on their first possession of the game. Then took the ball down the field on a 12-yard pass from quarterback Jerrell Lawson to Raheem Pearson. The PAT was good.

The Jaguars answered the bell with a touch of their own on a fourth and inches. The two point conversion failed. The Dogs led 7 to 6.

The Bulldogs added two more touchdowns in the second quarter. One on a seven yard run by LaMarcus Adair and the other by at Adair following a fumble recovery. The kick was blocked but the Bulldogs took a 20-6 lead to the locker room.

Third quarter set the stage for a Jaguar comeback when the Jag held the Bulldogs on their opening possession.

The Jaguars unleashed a powerful running attack but appeared to be stopped by a 15 yard penalty. However, the Jags quarterback tucked the ball and took it in for the score. The two-point conversion was good and the Bulldogs clung to a 20-14 lead.

Pike County picked up a first down through the air but the quarterback was sacked for a 10-yard loss as the third quarter came to an end.

Attempting to get rid of the football in the face of an on-rushing Jag attack, Lawson’s pass was intercepted and returned for a touchdown. The two point conversion attempt failed and the scored was knotted at 20.

Then the comedy of errors began. The Bulldogs and Jaguars traded fumbles with the Dawgs taking two.

The Bulldogs airmail was returned by the Jaguars. The pick-six put the Jaguars up by 6 and the two-point conversion was good. With time running out, the Bulldogs came to life and roared down the field. With 8.2 seconds on the clock and the Bulldogs knocking on the door at the Jags’ 10-yard-line, Lawon’s pass was picked off and returned for a touchdown. The lights when out for the Bulldogs.

Holland said his team played hard and fought hard the first half.

“In the second half, we came out flat. We had too many dropped balls. And we didn’t execute during the second half. You have to play two halves of football. We’ll go back and look at what we did and didn’t do. We’ve got to do a better job of executing. We have to do that to win and we have to maintain. We can let up.”