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BAMBERG - It was a celebration 11 months in the making for top-ranked Bamberg-Ehrhardt and many of the 5,000-plus fans inside Leon Maxwell Stadium Friday night.

Last November, the Red Raiders had to watch on their homefield as Region 5-A rival Allendale-Fairfax celebrated a 20-7 playoff victory. This time around, it was the B-E players and cheerleaders launching water from their Gatorade squeeze bottles into the air like party confetti following a 14-7 victory over the second-ranked and previously-undefeated Tigers.

"I just think we knew we had to play well," B-E head coach Ron Duncan said. "I'm not sure how much it was on our kids' mind. I mean, they're not stupid. They've got memories and they know what happened and they knew we were going to have a tough game on our hands."

B-E's game plan in winning its 19th consecutive regular-season game and earning a share of first-place in Region 5-A was simple - keep the ball out of Allendale-Fairfax's hands, specifically Elite 11 running back Lennel Elmore, and use its own running attack to win the time of possession battle.

"They've got such a fine offense with so many tremendous athletes," Duncan said. "Our goal was to try to keep them off the field and our offense ran out the clock and did a good job at that."

Elmore did score a touchdown and was responsible for 109 of Allendale-Fairfax's 198 total yards - all on the ground. However, B-E also exclusively used its ground game, primarily with Daquan Bowers and Anquan Thomas, to control the game by taking away valuable minutes off the clock.

"We had to keep number 7 (Elmore) off the field, but we kept Daquan and Anquan Thomas on the field," said B-E quarterback Chris Presley, who scored one of his team's two rushing touchdowns.

Bowers finished with 101 yards, 66 coming in the second half, while Thomas had 86 yards and the go-ahead touchdown with 1:51 remaining in the third quarter. As a team, B-E had 267 total yards - all on the ground.

"Last year, it was the first round of the playoffs," Bowers said. "They put us off in our backyard. It's been a sour taste in our mouth ever since then, so we had to come out tonight and play football and stay focused and we got the job done."

While it was all smiles on the B-E sidelines, frustration and anger were the emotions exhibited by the Allendale-Fairfax players and coaching staff. Tigers' head coach Wayne Farmer was particularly irate over what he saw as his team's lethargic play, even tossing his headphones on the ground during the post-game meeting.

"I'm not feeling too good right now," said Farmer, whose team's record dropped to 6-1 overall, 1-1 in Region 5-A. "I think Bamberg's very good. I thought their coach did a good job of preparing. I think their kids wanted it a little bit more than our kids tonight. I just thought we didn't play up to our level tonight. I thought we were a little flat. I thought we were flat all week. But I'm not going to make excuses. They did a great job."

As expected, the two teams waged a "ground war" as only six passes, all incompletions and one interception, were thrown in the entire game.

After a scoreless first quarter, B-E and A-F matched each other with long, time-consuming scoring drives which dominated the second quarter. The Red Raiders opened the quarter with possession and needed 14 plays and just more than seven minutes to move the football 95 yards for the game's first score on a 5-yard keeper by Presley.

The touchdown run was similar to Presley's 23-yard scamper which set up the score in which he faked the inside handoff and sprinted in the opposite direction for big yardage.

Down 7-0 with 6:11 remaining, the Tigers answered back with a 10-play, 75-yard scoring drive which took close to four minutes. Once again, A-F turned to its "Superman" who pulled a "Houdini" on the drive starting with a run in which he somehow twisted and squeezed his way between several B-E tacklers and turned upfield for 23 yards.

Two plays later, A-F turned the tables on B-E as quarterback Antonio Fredrick faked the handoff inside and instead gave it to Elmore who raced untouched into the end zone for a 15-yard touchdown that tied the game following the PAT.

Elmore finished the first half with 76 rushing yards, 52 coming on the scoring drive. Anquan Thomas had 44 rushing yards to lead B-E, which held a 127-115 edge in total yards over A-F heading into the lockerroom.

The Red Raiders forced the Tigers to punt on its first possession of the second half and capitalized with another run-dominated scoring drive which lasted close to six minutes. This time, it was Thomas who did most of the damage starting with a 31-yard run and capping the 12-play, 80-yard scoring drive with a 6-yard run up the middle of the A-F defense.

A-F tried to answer back early in the fourth quarter, only to turn the ball over on downs after Elmore was tackled short of the first down following a fake punt attempt. B-E resumed hammering away with Bowers on the ground as he converted two critical first downs to keep the clock moving and draw his team closer to another score.

"We tried to milk the clock, keep our offense on the field as long as possible and keep their offense off and we did a great job tonight" Bowers said. "My complements to the offensive line. They did a great job blocking upfront."

The Red Raiders reached the Allendale-Fairfax 11, but on fourth down, Presley's second pass of the game was intercepted in the end zone by Bashaud Joyner. On the play, however, Joyner was tackled at the 1-yard line, leaving the Tigers 99 yards away from the game-tying score with only one timeout and less than four minutes remaining.

B-E forced two incompletions and contained Elmore on a two-yard run to force Allendale-Fairfax to punt. Bowers then picked up another first down with a bruising 7-yard run and Presley took a knee on the final two possessions to seal the victory. .

. "They beat us last year on this field, so we had to come back and win this year," Presley said.

Farmer would like nothing more than to return the favor again in the postseason should the two teams meet again in the Class A Division I Upper State playoffs. For now, his immediate focus is next week's game against Denmark-Olar.

"All we're going to do is try to win every game until we see them again," he said. "That's all we're going to do."

As for B-E (7-0, 2-0), it's another tough Region 5-A contest on the road against Blackville-Hilda.

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