Lumberton is looking to stay on track after redeeming itself with a win over Stringer.
“We did a lot better,” Lumberton coach Zach Jones said. “There were a lot of things we cleaned up from the week before. I was really proud to see that. I thought our effort was better. I thought we responded. There were things we tried to get better at, and I thought we did. We’re still not perfect, but you don’t want to be perfect right now. I like the direction we are headed in.”
Lumberton bounced back with a dominant 42-8 win over Stringer. In that game, the Panthers totaled 466 yards of offense with Robert Henry throwing for 105 yards and a touchdown and rushing for 178 yards and three touchdowns.
This week Lumberton will host Leake County, which is not only looking for its first win but has yet to score a touchdown this season.
“They are athletic,” Jones said. “They have some strong kids and are good on the line of scrimmage. That’ll be a challenge for us, and we need that to get better. It’s the same motto as last week: ‘Don’t worry about who we are playing. We just have to take care of us.’”
As an offense, Leake County has averaged 264.5 yards per game, with 203 of those coming from its run game.
“Their shotgun package is similar to what we run,” Jones said. “We should be familiar with that. They run some Wing-T. I figure we’ll see that based on the film that they have seen on us. That’s their main offensive package.”
The Gators have four different players who have recorded 10 carries out of their 55.
The main two go-to running backs are Marques Triplett and Leviticus Boyd, who combined for 265 rushing yards.
“I think there is an advantage to (splitting carries like that) because it keeps them fresh,” Jones said. “It keeps defenses wondering because you don’t know who is going to get the football. I think there are advantages to that.
“(Boyd and Triplett) run hard, and they have a little bit of speed.”
Leake County has freshman A’darius Armon at quarterback and is 10-of-16 on the season while passing for 123 yards.
“I think he is getting better,” Jones said. “From watching the film, it looks like he is getting more comfortable. He’s a freshman, and he’s just being thrown into the fire. We have to keep him rattled and not let him get into a rhythm. We need to keep things mixed and give him different looks.”
Defensively, Leake County runs a 4-man front defense but has allowed an average of 30 points per game. Despite the high number, Jones believes that their defensive line will pose a challenge for his team’s offensive line.
“I think the defensive line is their strong suit,” Jones said. “They have solid guys up front. I think their linebackers have improved as the year has gone on. I think that their defensive front will be the biggest challenge.
“They are kind of unconventional with things they do sometimes. I think it’ll be a challenge for our guys up front to pick some of that stuff up, but I think it’ll be a big help for us down the road.”
