As the final buzzer sounded in M.L. King’s 13-9 upset against No. 1-ranked Southwest DeKalb, Lions coach Corey Jarvis was handed the game ball at midfield.
Perhaps caught up in the excitement of the moment, Jarvis turned around and heaved the ball as far as he could toward the M.L. King fans celebrating in the stands.
“I was trying to get out of here ... I’m not lying,” Jarvis said with a laugh. “We shot ourselves so many times in the foot [with mistakes]. We’re fortunate, very fortunate to win.”
It was an emotional victory for the Lions. They earned neighborhood bragging rights by knocking off the first Southwest team to hold the state’s No. 1 ranking since 2000. More than 13,000 fans, one of the biggest crowds at Hallford Stadium in years, saw the two DeKalb County powerhouses square off.
The season-opener for both teams was billed as a showdown between the state’s top two tailbacks, M.L. King’s Mack Brown and Southwest’s Kendrun Malcome. But it was M.L. King quarterback Cameron Myers who stole the spotlight with two touchdown passes.
Brown, who has committed to Florida, finished with 66 yards on 21 carriess. Malcome, who is headed to Georgia, had 17 carries for 75 yards. Malcome, with his rare combination of power and speed, was the more impressive of the two. But it was Brown who was able to claim victory against his childhood friend’s top-ranked team.
“Southwest DeKalb has a great, great team, and it means a lot to beat the No. 1 team in Georgia,” Brown said. “I talked a little bit to [Malcome] after the game and he was kind of upset. I’m sure we’ll talk more later.”
The game could not have started any worse for Southwest. On M.L. King’s first offensive play, Myers threw the ball behind one of his wide receivers on a screen play well behind the line of scrimmage. The loose ball was picked up by a Southwest defender for an apparent fumble recovery at the M.L. King 10-yard line. But the referees ruled that Myers had thrown an incomplete pass.
On Southwest’s first offensive play from scrimmage, it got even worse. Quarterback Steven Coates ran for 10 yards and went down with an ankle injury. He missed the rest of the game.
“That first play, we lost our quarterback and that sort of put us in a quandary,” Southwest coach Buck Godfrey said. “I don’t make excuses, but when Steve Coates went down that was like 40- or 50-percent of our offense with throwing and running the ball.
“When you lose a guy like him, you become one-dimensional. We couldn’t throw the ball like we normally could. We had to go to Malcome, and I thought he did a good job under those circumstances.”
Sophomore Jalil Young played quarterback for the remainder of the game for the Panthers. Marques Dixon, who scored Southwest’s only touchdown on an 85-yard kickoff return, likely will start at quarterback next week while Coates recovers.
M.L. King won despite a comedy of errors, committing 11 penalties in the first half, including four of five plays at one stretch in the second quarter. But the Lions still found a way to win, which pleased Jarvis.
“I still think Southwest has a great team,” he said. “To get a chance to great program like that, when they are ranked No. 1, it’s just a great feeling. It’s huge for our football program.”
M.L. KING 13, SOUTHWEST DEKALB 9
MLK 0 6 7 0 — 13
SWD 0 3 6 0 — 9
M — Jonathan Sellers 27 pass from Cameron Myers (kick failed)
S — Preston McCarthy 32 FG
M — Kenneth Baldridge 5 pass from Myers (Amber Irvin kick)
S — Marques Dixon 85 kickoff return (kick failed)
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