MARKSVILLE – Jose Mijares kicked DeRidder into the win column Friday night.

Trailing by a point, the Dragon kicker drilled a 22-yard field goal to lift DeRidder to a hard-fought 9-7 win over the Marksville Tigers in non-district play.

DeRidder (3-2) will close out its non-district schedule on Thursday night on the road against the Buckeye Panthers.

The Dragons took the initial lead of the game on a 7-yard TD run from Alex Archield, but the 2-point conversion failed. DeRidder owned that same 6-0 advantage at the half.

Marksville (0-5) found paydirt in the third quarter when quarterback Kyreon Prier found Justin Francisco on a 43-yard TD pass. The Tigers took the lead when John Larimore tacked on the PAT for a 7-6 advantage.

The Dragons were able to overcome the deficit by mounting a fourth-quarter drive, culminating with the 22-yard field goal by Mijares and the 9-7 win.

Ronnie Crosby was the Dragon workhorse, running the ball 26 times for 231 yards, while Archield added 42 yards and a score on 15 carries.

This article originally appeared on Leesville Daily Leader: Dragons get late field goal to beat Marksville