North Forrest coach Todd Lowery and Lumberton coach Jonathan Ladner had the same thing to say after their opening season games.
‘You have the most improvement from Week 1 to Week 2.’
But for each side, the context is different.
For North Forrest, the Eagles’ 36-0 win over Pisgah was the first season-opening win for the program since 2010.
“Just starting off 1-0 is big based on the fact that we went over 1,000 days before getting a win against Stringer last year,” Lowery said. “We have some consistency now with our staff and the system that we are doing. To start with success is a big confidence builder, but now they have to put that behind them and focus on getting better this week.
“The kids continue to show up and continue to be hungry. Just seeing what we’ve been trying to do for a year really kick in offensively and how effective it can be was huge, and getting confidence for what we are doing.”
As for Lumberton, the Panthers are hoping to avoid its third straight year of starting the season 0-2 after opening the season with a 27-12 loss to Purvis.
“We had a lot of self-inflicted mistakes,” Ladner said. “I thought we threw the ball extremely well. We spread the ball around to the guys that we were trying to get it. We just couldn’t get enough space to make dynamic plays.
“I thought our defense played well early. We just have to make sure we don’t run out of gas, and that stems from sustaining drives on offense. There are things that we have to clean up in the run game, particularly on the offensive line. We are going to keep trying to clean those things up and preach physicality. I think we needed to be more physical up front. If we can clean that up this week, then we can get those first downs and convert those third down and shorts. It’s polishing and cleaning up stuff.”
In the Eagles’ victory, North Forrest’s Wing-T offense racked up 352 yards on 24 carries, which was led by running back Cephus Pruitt who came up with 181 of those yards on just six carries. Pruitt ran in two touchdowns for North Forrest and scored on a 2-point conversion. It’s also worth adding that quarterback Dalton Watson was 2 of 3, tossing for 58 yards and a touchdown.
“It was incredible,” said Lowery on Pruitt’s performance. “We’ve known how good Cephus is even last year. He has great speed and a great summer.
“He’s coming into his own and what’s expected of him, and it showed on Friday night. You can’t talk about his performance without talking about how good we blocked for him.”
According to Ladner, North Forrest’s win resembles the Eagles’ successful winning formula the program experienced years ago.
“They are kind of back to what North Forrest has been known about,” Ladner said. “They are sound on defense, but they are back in the Wing-T. When North Forrest was good in the 1980s and 1990s, they were running Wing-T, so they are getting back to their roots.”
Lumberton’s passing game racked up 140 yards, but only muster 62 yards on the ground. Despite Lumberton’s loss, Lowery is more than aware of the Panthers’ football-rich history.
“They have a lot of team speed and fly to the ball,” Lowery said. “They are real physical. They throw it around a lot and have some good receivers.
“They have good football players like always. Those guys looked impressive on film.”
Lumberton will host North Forrest on Friday, with kickoff set for 7 p.m.
