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By CHRIS MEGGINSON | Special to the Reporter

RANBURNE — Jermarey Lawson took the opening kickoff 80 yards for a touchdown. It was his first of three touchdowns in a 255-yard all-purpose performance to lead the Vincent Yellow Jackets. However, a late score by Ranburne gave the Bulldogs a 36-35 win over Vincent to open Class 2A, Region 4 play.

“At the end of the night, depth was our biggest issue. A majority of our guys played both ways all night. I thought we played really hard against a very good team, just didn’t have enough gas in the second half,” said Vincent head coach Lucas Weatherford.

Following the quick kickoff score, Ranburne answered, 7-7, but Lawson went 50 yards on the next play to regain Vincent’s lead, 13-7. In the second quarter, Blake Allums connected with Tray Youngblood for a 19-yard touchdown, and Lawson tacked on the 2-point run, 21-7. Allums ran in a TD from 3-yards out, followed by another Lawson 2-point run, to lead 29-7 at the half.

Ranburne cut the margin to a touchdown with a pair of scores in the third quarter. Lawson put an end to an early second-half series by the Bulldogs, intercepting a pass in the end zone. Ranburne capitalized on two Vincent fumbles to make it 29-21 after three quarters and evened the score midway though the fourth quarter.

Lawson answered with a 49-yard touchdown run to put Vincent in front, 35-29. A late Yellow Jackets punt set up a 40-second scoring drive, aided by penalties to set up a game-tying touchdown and winning point after kick.

“We are so close to kicking the door down as a program. I just gotta keep working with our guys on keeping their heads up and not waiting on something bad to happen. I think tonight when things didn’t go well in the third quarter we started hanging our heads a little bit. We have got to get over this hump,” Weatherford said.

Evan Swain led Vincent with nine solo tackles and Zac Carlisle had an interception, along with Lawson’s.

Vincent (2-1, 0-1 Region 4) will host Horseshoe Bend on Friday, Sept. 10 at 7 p.m.