LAMAR, Mo. — The Lamar Tigers is a program that’s no stranger to playing in late November and Saturday afternoon the (10-1) Tigers were at home to host the (12-0) Lafayette County Huskers in the Class 2 state quarterfinals.

A dominant second half from the Tigers helped them run away with a 41-7 victory over the Huskers. Lamar improves to 11-1 on the season and advances to the Class 2 state semifinals for the fourth straight year.

Late in the first quarter, Lamar punches in the end zone first with Alex Wilkerson’s 21-yard run. Lafayette County ties things up with a touchdown of their own in the second quarter their only touchdown of the game. Lamar answered back with 35 seconds left in the second with an 11-yard run by Cooper Haun. The Tigers took a 13-7 lead at halftime.

Lamar received the ball at the start of the third quarter. They extended their lead 21-7 with a pass from Wilkerson to Chase Querry down the sideline for a 28-yard touchdown and a successful two-point conversion on a pass from Wilkerson to Haun. The defense stepped up and stopped the Huskers on their possession. The Tiger’s offense took the field once again and on 20-yard passing TD to Haun from Wilkerson gave Lamar a 28-7 lead. Still in the third, Haun scored his third touchdown of the day on a 42-yard rushing touchdown to give the Tigers a 35-7 cushion. In the fourth quarter, Wilkerson connected to Ian Ngugi for a 24-yard touchdown, the Tigers up 41-7 and that ended up being the final score.

Lamar held Lafayette County scoreless the last three quarters and outscored the Huskers 28-0 in the second half. The Tigers had 415 total yards of offense with 324 yards rushing and 91 yards passing.

Lafayette County was held to 141 yards of offense 71 rushing and 70 passing. In the second half, the Huskers only had eight rushing yards. Lamar forced three turnovers, two interceptions and a fumble.

The Tigers will be at home to host the (13-0) Bowling Green Bobcats next Saturday, November 25th in the Class 2 state semifinals at 1 p.m.

“I thought our kids came out and played outstanding. They played with great energy from the jump and you know we knew that there was going to be some adversity because you’re playing a really, really tough opponent in Lafayette County and our kids battled through that adversity in the first half and came out in the second half and just finished extremely strong which is what you want to see from a championship level team. So, that showed us that our kids can play at that level and so, we’re very excited about that and we’re excited to hopefully do that again next week.” Head coach Jared Beshore said on how his team played today.