HARELM - It was the rare triple overtime game that will be forgotten.

Burke County finally managed a hot potato of a victory that neither team wanted to step up and grab Friday night.

The Bears did it in a fashion that befitted the overall drudgery of the game. The hero of the night could have came up with a cover-up as to how the game was won. But Burke County quarterback Tyler Hammett made Harlem's field a no-spin zone after his bootleg on a two-point play secured a 15-13 overtime win for the Bears.

"I actually messed up," Hammett said. "We had three backs behind me. I tried to hand it to the second back in the formation. We had not ran that formation all night. I missed that hand off. I just said 'Oh crap' and took off. It was a busted play."

That was the poetic ending to an overtime where neither team scored until the third extra period.

Burke County took a 7-0 lead with 2:17 left in the first quarter. Senior running back Quentin Holmes dashed in from 5 yards. The Bears (3-2) did not score again until junior Rodney Moye swept left and scored from 15 yards on the first play of Burke's third overtime possession.

The Bears managed 12 first downs in the game, but no more points in regulation after Holmes hit paydirt. Holmes led the Bears in rushing with 57 yards on 11 carries. Burke County managed 184 yards rushing and 58 yards on 19 pass attempts. The Bears lost two fumbles and missed a 31-yard field goal in the second overtime.

"This was not a pretty game," Hammett said. "This was not Burke County football."

Harlem missed a 36-yard field goal in the second overtime that would have won it. The Bulldogs (1-3) came back with a smart call in the third overtime that netted their second passing touchdown of the game.

Senior quarterback Wesley Morris hit senior tight end Ky Arnold on third-and-12 for a 17-yard touchdown. That play was by no means the Harlem highlight of the night.

The Bulldogs tied the game on the last play of the first half. Morris threw long from his 47 to Mike Leverett. The senior tight end caught the ball and slipped by the Burke County pursuit.

Leverett turned a pass that was thrown about 25 yards into a 53-yard touchdown. He scored with no time left in the half.

"Coach (Adam) Fulford got over there and said we had to do something," Harlem defensive coordinator Lonnie Morris said. "It was kind of an improvised thing on the sideline. You have to give coach Fulford full credit. We took our best athlete and put him out there and he made a play for us. He's our best athlete. That's what the best athlete on a team usually does."

Morris was acting as the sideline lead coach due to his seniority with the team because head coach Jimmie Lewis was ejected from Harlem's 32-0 loss to Liberty County last week. Georgia High School Association rules mandate an ejected coach sit out the next game his team plays.

"This game was kind of like everything we went through this year," Morris said. "Just kind of gut-wrenching."