The Lumberton Panthers begin their region schedule with a road game to winless Mount Olive Friday night. Fresh off a bye week, Panthers coach Zach Jones thought his team used the off time to rest up some nagging injuries and they had competitive practices to stay locked in on the task at hand.
That task was to take care of themselves, and that’s been something Jones has preached since he arrived at Lumberton prior to the 2015 season. While Lumberton is 4-0, it had two slow starts to its last couple of games, which is something Jones wants to see cleaned up as well.
“It goes back to taking care of us and we have to be a little more consistent,” Jones said. “That’s the big thing and that’s what we harped on last week and we’ll harp on from here on out.”
The Panthers beat Heidelberg 32-7 three weeks ago, but all of their points came in the second half after being shutout through the first two quarters. Jones thought his team’s conditioning finally wore down the Oilers to help pull away. The following week, Lumberton and winless Franklin County played a close first half before the Panthers pulled away in the third quarter, and Jones points to his team not getting mentally prepared enough for the game.
“You can sit there and say Franklin County hasn’t won a ballgame, but I can tell you Franklin County may have been the most talented team we’ve played so far,” Jones said. “They were a good football team and I think we had to go over there and get our feet wet to realize what we were in for.”
So, with region play starting this week, does Lumberton lock in more? Mount Olive enters the game with a 0-5 record, but Jones points to last year’s game, which was another slow start.
Lumberton scored just six first-quarter points before unloading 26 in the second quarter.
“Maybe the intensity is stepped up a little bit,” Jones said of playing a region opponent. “It still goes to back us taking care of us. One thing I’m going to talk to our kids about is we played Mount Olive last year and we did not get ready to play that week, and Mount Olive played our socks off early.
“We have to be sure we get better and we’re not worrying about who we’re playing from here on out. Just make sure we’re getting better every day.”
The Pirates are winless with less than impressive statistics. Between three quarterbacks, the team is completing 29 percent of their passes and averaging less than 170 rushing yards per game. The offense only has seven touchdowns this season, while picking up two more on kickoff returns.
Defensively, teams are averaging 39 points per game on Mount Olive. Jones said he’s seen it play up to three different styles from watching film, and his offensive line will have to block well this week.
So far, the Lumberton offensive line has played well this season. The Lumberton rushing attack is averaging 347 yards per game and it’s scored 18 touchdowns on the ground. Sophomore Robert Henry leads the team with 679 yards and eight scores on 47 carries through four games.
Mount Olive features a young running back, too, as freshman Quandarius Hubbard has caught Jones’ eye. Hubbard has 343 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 72 attempts, and he’s also picked up 229 kickoff return yards and two touchdowns.
“Their running back can really run,” Jones said. “He can really get after it. I know they haven’t won a game but he’s scary. He’s gotten loose a couple of times and nobody on the field is able to catch him when he gets loose. We really have to be sure we bottle him up.”
