LUMBERTON – Although Lumberton features a rich football tradition, it's been a few years since the Panthers had experienced being a top team entering the playoffs.
Lumberton head coach Jonathan Ladner, who enters his fourth year at the helm, admits that it has taken time for the program to return to its former ways. Still, the recent success is a testament to the commitment of his senior class.
"I've been a part of a lot of great runs here," Ladner said. "But we have kind of have had a three-year hiatus where we kind of had to rebuild and grow some guys. I promised this senior class four years ago that if you keep working, then we'll get back to where we are supposed to be. Kudos to those guys because they have stuck with me through thick and thin and good and bad. You see the fruit of their labor for four years paying off this year."
Sure enough, Lumberton looked the part of a title contender after the Panthers made quick work of Shaw in a 42-12 win to open the Class 1A playoffs.
Lumberton (9-2), which won its seventh straight game, imposed its will on the line of scrimmage against Shaw (3-6) from start to finish.
"We knew that they were athleticism," Ladner said. "They were in that championship game against Bay Springs a couple of years ago. They have given people trouble on and off all year. The thing we focused on all week was being physical at the point of attack."
In the first half, Shaw turned the ball over four times and put up just 22 yards in total offense compared to Lumberton's 200. As a result, the Panthers instigated a running clock before the first half even ended.
"I can't say enough about our offensive line," Ladner said. "They set the tone from the first drive of the game to the end of the game."
Our defensive line came to play tonight too. We got after them upfront. If you were at the game, then you would have heard the cracks and the pops going on tonight. We were physical. That's what Lumberton's defense is about. It's about being physical and out-toughing people. We out-physicaled and out-toughed them tonight.
Shaw went three and out on its first drive of the game but snapped the ball over the punter's head to give Lumberton the ball at the Warriors' 19-yard line. It took just two plays before running back Gabriel Franklin broke away for a 19-yard touchdown run.
The Warriors fumbled the ball away on its own 25-yard line on the first play of its next drive, and Lumberton again quickly scored after quarterback Lathen Bowens punched in a touchdown to push the score to 14-0. Bowens, who fully recovered from a foot injury he sustained earlier in the season, accounted for 148 total yards by the night's end.
"Lathen is back pretty much healthy now," Ladner said. "We went back to some different spread formations and kind of let him do his thing."
The Panthers' next drive ended with Ta'Kell scoring the first of his three touchdowns. However, Shaw managed to get on the board just before the end of the first quarter after returning a kick for a 70-plus-yard touchdown to narrow the score to 21-6.
Shaw again fumbled the ball away on a punt, resulting in Bowens scoring on a 6-yard run. The Warriors again coughed up a fumble on its next drive, and Lumberton capitalized again, with Lee pounding in a 3-yard touchdown run. Lee, who ran for 64 yards, tacked on his final touchdown in the second half.
"I think our offensive line dominated the game from the get-go," Ladner said. "We were able to run the ball at will. We hit some early passes too. Our mentality right now is that we aren't going to play scared, and we aren't going to coach scared."
Lumberton will face Nanih Waiya in the second round of the Class 1A playoffs.
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