A week after their loss to Taylorsville, the Lumberton Panthers rebounded incredibly against Sacred Heart last week. Lumberton improved to 7-1 overall and 3-0 in Region 4-1A after a 51-7 thrashing of the Crusaders, but now the schedule gets a little tougher.
“It may not have been our best effort of the year, but we went out and took care of business,” Lumberton coach Zach Jones said of the win. “We did what we needed to do. It’s time to get ready for Resurrection now.”
With Resurrection Catholic on the schedule this week, it should provide a little more motivation for Lumberton. The Eagles knocked out the Panthers last season in the second round of the playoffs, and the two have played a handful of tight contests the last few years.
The Resurrection game is always intense for Lumberton, but mainly because of the timing of it. The two always play near the end of the regular season, then they’ll most likely see each other sometime in the postseason.
“It’s an important one for a lot of reasons,” Jones said. “If we win Saturday night, it’s going to put us at home in the playoffs. It’s important because it’s the next game on the schedule, too. We can’t get caught up in the importance of it because it’s the next game and we have to go get ready to play.”
For the most part, the Eagles are the same team they’ve been for the last couple of seasons. They have a bell cow running back who handles most of the carries, a quarterback who makes smart decisions and good skill players.
Senior Terrance Spivey has 692 yards and 12 scores on 134 carries this season, and he recorded four 100-yard games, but none have come in back-to-back weeks. He totaled 109 yards and three touchdowns on 14 rushing attempts last week. In Resurrection’s two losses, he had 37 yards on 11 attempts against Stringer and 91 yards on 19 carries against Chickasaw (Alabama).
Senior quarterback Jacob Galle has 1,138 yards, 10 touchdowns and four interceptions on 71-of-121 passing, and junior Javid Shadwick leads with 318 receiving yards and three touchdowns.
“They’re the same team with different players, so they’re playing some young players, but those guys are getting better every week,” Jones said. “They’re gaining some confidence and you can kind of see it. They’re going to play hard and we’re going to get their best shot.”
The Eagles have scored at least 43 points in four of their six wins, although those wins were against teams that are a combined 5-29 on the season. They’ve always won low-scoring games against Forrest County AHS and Northlake Christian (Louisiana), too.
In the losses, Resurrection lost to Chickasaw 32-12 and was shutout out by Stringer 30-0.
Defensively, teams are scoring 24 points against Resurrection so far this season, but Salem and Mount Olive only put up 13 and six points, respectively.
“They’re the same “we’re going to stop the run first” team that they’ve been in the past,” Jones said. “They have some really good defensive backs who can challenge our receivers, so our guys will have to step up and make some plays. They’re really sound fundamental wise, they’re where they’re supposed to be and do what they’re supposed to do. We have to beat them because they’re not going to beat themselves.”
Instead of a normal Friday night game, Lumberton and Resurrection will meet Saturday night at Pascagoula’s War Memorial Stadium. Lumberton found out a couple of weeks into the season that the game would be moved to Saturday, then recently found out the game was moved from Gautier High School to Pascagoula.
With the game a day later, it’s a short week for the Stringer-Lumberton matchup the following Friday.
