The goal has taken six long years to achieve, but the once proud Lewisburg Middle School squad ended the regular season back on top after a 35-26 win over E.A. Cox for their first undefeated season since 2012.

Third-year coach Beau Hardison developed a program with a bare cupboard in 2016 and went from one win in his inaugural year to two wins with mostly close losses in 2017, to a 7-0 record and a berth in the Big South Conference championship against Witthorne on Thursday.

"Hard work is what got us to this place," Hardison said. "It's those kids. They made their minds up last year after a disappointing season because we lost a lot of close games last year."

"We only had one game that wasn't close," Hardison continued. "So it was this eighth-grade group saying to themselves they were going to work hard and they have."

For the most part, the Tigers rode the horse that got the team to this point as do-everything running back Demarie Braden scored four touchdowns, but LMS also picked up a brilliant performance from kicker Wyatt Joyce, who completed two onside kicks on back-to-back possessions and just missed a third.

"For the onside kick, I hit the top of the ball and I just run up to it and I really focus on hitting the top and making sure it bounces correctly," Joyce explained. "That worked well tonight because my team was getting there quickly and hopping for the ball."

The game started much the same way the previous six had with Braden scoring two quick touchdowns and fullback Grayson Miller adding another for a 21-0 LMS lead.

E.A. Cox used the second quarter to make some headway, scoring once to cut the lead to 21-6 before a touchdown run and two-point conversion trimmed the Tigers’ lead to 21-14 with 2:12 left in the first half.

Before the Cougars had a chance to stay in the game, Braden broke through the line on fourth down and raced 12 yards into the end zone with just five seconds left in the half to push the lead to 28-14 after the Joyce extra point.

The Tigers kicked off to start the second half and the first of three perfect onside kicks by Joyce gave the ball right back to LMS.

The Tigers failed to capitalize on the turnover, going three-and-out, but on the first Cougar play from scrimmage a quick thinking James Hery jumped on a missed backwards lateral to give the ball right back to the home team.

This possession, the Tigers used the turnover to its advantage as Braden took the handoff up the middle, before bouncing outside and making three Cougar defenders miss for a 19-yard score and a 35-14 lead with 2:47 left in the third quarter.

Although the game seemed over, the momentum quickly shifted to E.A. Cox, who trimmed the lead to 35-20 after a 55-yard touchdown run with 4:01 left in the game.

The Tigers went three-and-out once again and this time the Cougar return man took the punt 50 yards to cut the once 21-point lead down to just nine.

"We knew that number two was good (the running back with both fourth quarter touchdowns) and that he could score quickly," Hardison pointed out. "We kept him bottled up early. This was the first close game and it was homecoming, so we were too relaxed."

"We were up 21, so I think they kind of relaxed a little bit," Hardison added. "And then they started feeling sorry for themselves because we gave up two big scores."

Luckily, the Tigers did not dwell on the Cougar comeback attempt too long and after safely recovering the Cox onside kick attempt, Miller came up with a huge four-yard run on third-and-four to end the game and keep the undefeated record intact.

The Tigers take on Witthorne for the conference championship on Thursday night at 6 p.m. at Preston Hopkins Field in Lewisburg.

The Tigers were the only team to play LMS close with Lewisburg down 8-6 at halftime, before scoring 21 unanswered second half points to leave Columbia with the 27-8 season-opening win.

"We thought going in that Witthorne was probably the toughest team we've played all year because they do better at in-game adjustments," Hardison explained. "They do a better job of adjusting to our unbalanced, where most middle school teams don't adjust well mid-game."

"Witthorne is going to adjust to our unbalanced, they are well coached, they've got a really good running back, and they'll have a good game plan going in," Hardison continued. "They've gotten a lot better. We scored 24 on them in the opener and they've only given up eight points since."