Little did Purcell senior Devan Martin know he would get a second shot at a 33-yard field goal but that’s exactly what happened Friday night in the last two minutes at Conger Field.

He missed from 33 yards out with 1:41 left in the season opener against Lindsay but got a second chance from exactly the same distance with eight ticks remaining and nailed it with room to spare, lifting the Dragons to a 17-16 victory over the visiting Leopards.

“That was a high pressure kick for a high school kid,” head coach Aaron Dillard said. “That was a neat series for him.”

Lindsay didn’t take much time off the clock after Martin’s first kick hit the cross bar. The Dragons ended up getting the ball back with some time at the Lindsay 40-yard line.

Purcell gobbled up gains of nine, 12 and 11 yards to set the table for Martin’s toe to win the game.

A 90-yard scoring romp by senior Boston Knowles got the scoring started for the Dragons.

Knowles finished his night’s work on offense with 175 yards rushing on 23 carries.

“He had a tremendous game,” Dillard said of his star running back. “That 90-yard carry was a great way to start.”

Dillard had high praise for junior Deaken Dobbins who made his first start at quarterback.

He made some clutch plays late.

As a team, the Dragons rushed for 266 yards.

“When you rush for that many yards the guys up front have done a good job,” the coach said.

He was referring to Jonathon Minor, Gunnar Baker, Christian Kirk, Landry Bacon, Brian Bernal, with some work by Dylan Smith and Kaden Pliler.

Dillard said collectively he got about 60 yards rushing out of his A backs that included Noel Chavez, Martin, and Carter Bennett.

“They all made some key plays,” the coach confirmed.

On the defensive side of the ball, Dillard said, “I felt like we were pretty dominant most of the night.”

“We had one coverage bust and they hit us for a 46 yard touchdown pass,” Dillard said of the first Leopard score.

Lindsay finished with 50 yards passing and 84 on the ground.

“We were really good on third down with Lindsay only converting three out of 10 times. We also made them put it on the ground several times but were never able to get on one,” he said.

Dillard gave high marks to linebackers Casey Billingsly and Christian Kirk. Billingsly finished with seven tackles  while Kirk made six stops including two behind the line of scrimmage.

“Our D-line controlled the line of scrimmage taking on double teams,” Dillard said.

Jonathon Minor had five tackles with three of them for losses.

The coach also praised the work of Landry Bacon, Gunnar Baker, Rigo Carrillo, Dylan Smith and Brady Burks.

“Brady Burks had a huge sack there at the end and for the most part our defensive secondary kept people in front of us. We made them work hard to earn stuff throughout the night,” he confirmed.

Up next is a date at Washington Friday at 7 p.m. at Reed Field.

“They’re still really good,” Dillard said of the Warriors. “They are very athletic and talented at a lot of spots.

“They can hurt you in a lot of ways. We’ll have to play very sound in the line and execute on every snap,” the coach said.

“They have a lot of long, athletic dudes that run to the ball. They are extremely hard to block in general.”

The Warriors will operate out of a 3-4 on defense.

“We’ll need to take care of the football on offense and we need to win on first down, be efficient on third down and move the sticks.

“We need to play a lot cleaner  than last week,” Dillard said. “We need to value the football and we need to get them in third and long, keep them behind the chains,” he concluded.

Dragon notes:

Head coach Aaron Dillard nominated Boston Knowles as the Offensive Player of the Week. He gained 175 yards on 23 carries and opened the scoring with a nifty 90 yard run.

Dillard nominated Christian Kirk as the Defensive Player of the Week. He had six tackles including two for losses.

Gunnar Baker got the nomination for Offensive Lineman of the Week. He graded out at 72 percent.

The Defensive Lineman of the Week nomination went to Brady Burks, who had a huge sack in the waning moments of the big win against Lindsay. He finished with four tackles and the sack.