PROCTORVILLE - Evidently the Meigs Marauders thought their ending was better than the one the Fairland Dragons envisioned.

Fairland rallied from a 17-point halftime deficit to take the lead with less than two minutes to play.

But Meigs scored with less than one second left to rally past the Dragons 34-30 Friday night.

"The second half our defense played really well. But they got a nice (kickoff) return and we had a couple of penalties that helped them score. We played well enough to win," Fairland coach Brent Wilcoxon said.

Jared Casey ran 26 yards to cap a 78-yard, 7-play drive as Meigs took a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.

Josh Buzzard bolted 60 yards in the second quarter as the lead went to 14-0, but Fairland came back on a 28-yard field goal by John Sicarada to cap a 67-yard, 17-play drive and it was 14-3.

Casey returned the kickoff 36 yards to the Fairland 43 and four plays later Aaron Strong hit Buzzard with an 8-yard touchdown pass for a 20-3 halftime lead.

Fairland came out strong in the second half and scored 20 points in the third quarter to take a 23-20 lead. Adam Fuller scored three touchdowns on runs of 1, 1 and 32 yards. The third touchdown was on the first play following a fumble recovery by Cole Hatfield.

"We sucked it up and the second half we played well. Adam Fuller probably played his best game," Wilcoxon said.

Meigs regained the lead on a

1-yard run by Casey but Wes Ripley blocked the conversion kid and it was 26-23 with 11:58 to play.

Ripley recovered a fumble at the 48-yard line to set up a four-play drive by the Dragons that culminated on a 23-yard run by Fuller. Sicarada kicked the extra point and it was 30-26.

Casey had a 28-yard return on the kickoff and a 15-yard penalty on Fairland moved the ball to the 31. Eric VanMeter caught an 18-yard pass and a half-the-distance to the goal penalty moved the ball to the 9-yard line.

With seconds remaining, Strong scrambled 9 yards for the touchdown with six-tenths of a second remaining on the clock.

Casey ran for 110 yards to lead Meigs, but he had just 20 yards in the second half.

Meigs 4-1 and Fairland 1-4.

'We're better than a 1-4 team. We just have to keep our heads up and keep working," Wilcoxon said.

Defensively the Dragons were led by Ripley and Chad Kilgore with 8 tackles each.

"We challenged them and they stepped up. We did everything to win the game but came out on the wrong end of the stick," Fairland assistant coach Jeff Gorby said.

Meigs713014=34

Fairland03207=30

First Quarter

Me – Jared Casey 26 run (Josh Buzzard kick) 5:42

Second Quarter

Me – Josh Buzzard 60 run (Buzzard kick) 7:29

Fa – John Sicarada 28 field goal 2:42

Me – Josh Buzzard 8 pass from Aaron Strong (kick failed) :42

Third Quarter

Fa – Adam Fuller 1 run (John Sicarada kick) 6:17

Fa – Adam Fuller 1 run (kick failed) 2:41

Fa – Adam Fuller 32 run (John Sicarada kick) 2:17

Fourth Quarter

Me – Jared Casey 1 run (kick blocked) 7:32

11:58

Fa – Adam Fuller 23 run (John Sicarada kick) 1:32

Me – Aaron Strong 9 run (Eric VanMeter pass from Strong) :00.6

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MeFa

First downs1221

Rushes-yards39-24930-158

Passing yards90205

Total yards339363

Cmp-Att-Int9-20-021-40-2

Fumbles-lost4-42-0

Penalties-yards10-955-65

Punts-average2-29.03-30.6

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Individual Leaders

RUSHING – Meigs: Jared Casey 19-110, Josh Buzzard 3-65, David Poole 10-44, Aaron Strong 4-21, Cornelius English 3-9; Fairland: Adam Fuller 23-152, Michael Meachem 4-14, Travis Cardwell 1-0, Rich Staggs 4-minus 8.

PASSING – Meigs: Aaron Strong xx; Fairland: Rich Staggs

RECEIVING – Meigs: Eric VanMeter 4-49, Jared Casey 4-33, Josh Buzzard 1-8; Fairland: Sam Huff 7-89, Adam Fuller 10-87, Josh Johnson 3-23, Michael Meachem 1-6.