By John Bassetti

sports@vindy.com

CORTLAND

As long as Lakeview had the ball, it had a chance because the Bulldogs have Jatise Garrison.

Playing its second varsity game on a new artificial surface field, Lakeview scored two touchdowns in the final 29.9 seconds to overcome visiting LaBrae, 20-10.

“You’ve got to expect the unexpected,” said Garrison, a 6-4, 190-pound senior who caught a touchdown pass from Zach Rogers covering 28 yards, then intercepted a Carlton Brown pass and returned it 46 yards with 2.5 seconds remaining.

Noah Busefink kick both PATs to put the finishing touches on Lakeview’s very late come-from-behind win after trailing, 10-6.

In between his touchdowns, Garrison broke up a pass to keep the visiting Vikings from crossing midfield as the seconds ticked away.

The Bulldogs (2-1) dug deep to pull out the dramatic win.

“We’re all fighting our own battles here, at home and off the field because we have a couple guys injured,” Garrison said. “It’s tough to see that, so that was our motivation coming into the game.”

Although the final 30 seconds didn’t include any of Garrison’s trademark leaping and acrobatic catches, the deployment of his natural abilities was enough to get the job done.

“He’s a weapon and you’ve got to account for him,” coach Tom Pavlansky said. “I can’t say enough about him.”

As for the rest of the team, Pavlansky credited unselfish effort.

“Our guys understand that practice is the most important thing we do, so that showed with their effort tonight.”

Spotting LaBrae four points put Lakeview’s defense in a tough situation.

“Defensively, we didn’t execute very well and had bad field position the whole second half,” Pavlansky added.

LaBrae coach John Armeni said that Lakeview made plays down the stretch that resulted in the bottom line.

“Obviously, it was not the ending we wanted,” he said. “At halftime, we challenged our guys to come out and play with some guts and I think we were able to do that in the second half, but we’re a young team and mistakes add up and a lot of little mistakes add up to a big one. We didn’t make the plays down the stretch that we needed to make.”

One missed opportunity was a fumble at Lakeview’s 3-yard line in the third quarter, a recovery made by Lakeview’s Joel Lindow.

“If we execute, we win. That’s on my coaching staff and it’s on my players – to improve and right the ship going into Campbell Memorial next week,” Armeni said.

LaBrae out-gained Lakeview on the ground, 209-49, with Arjay Oliver’s 19 carries netting 127 yards.

Garrison had five catches for 87 yards, followed by Evan Adair with three for 80 and Drew Munno’s three for 32.

Tony Crish had Lakeview’s first TD on a 1-yard run following Adair’s 39-yard pass reception. Tariq Drake had LaBrae’s lone tally on a 24-yard run in the third quarter and Kris Foor had a 25-yard field goal and one PAT for the Vikings’ other points.