FARMINGTON -- It was the same old story for Farmington.
The Cardinals were on the verge of winning their first home conference game Friday night, but turnovers hurt Farmington again as Vilonia escaped with a 27-20 victory in their 5A-West matchup at Allen Holland Field.
"I'm so proud of the way we played defensively," Farmington Coach Mike Adams said. "We played our rear-ends off on defense all night long, and we gave them two scores on offense again. You can't do that.
"That stuff is just a killer against good football teams."
Farmington (4-4, 1-4 5A-West) led 14-7 at halftime and was driving to go ahead by two scores when senior receiver Michael Ingram was stripped off the ball while trying to gain extra yardage and Vilonia's Daron McCluskey raced 20 yards the other way to tie it.
Farmington answered with a 60-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Brice Waggle to Ingram, who finished with 7 receptions for 125 yards, but Vilonia (4-4, 3-2) came up with an interception later in the quarter and forced a fumble early in the fourth quarter deep in Cardinals territory to pull into a 20-20 tie.
Vilonia's defense came up with a three-and-out late in the fourth quarter, then chewed up the clock the rest of the way, finally securing the victory when Jeremiah Santiago plowed in from 2 yards out with 11 seconds left.
Waggle found Evan O'Dell on the game's final drive near midfield and the senior managed to get out of bounds, but a Hail Mary pass on the final play was knocked down by the Eagles.
The loss all but eliminated Farmington from playoff contention with only the top four seeds advancing to the Class 5A playoffs.
"It's a tough league," Adams said. "We've been competitive in every game we've played, we just haven't gotten over the hump yet.
"We'll grow from it and hopefully play better these last two weeks."
Sports on 10/25/2014