The Lumberton Panthers are rolling right now, and they’re off to a perfect 3-0 record after taking down Heidelberg Friday. At halftime, however, that mark was in question. Lumberton trailed 7-0 after the first two quarters, and Lumberton coach Zach Jones said he had a simple message to his players.
“Execute,” Jones said. “I’ll be honest, there wasn’t much. Just take care of us. Defensively, we played pretty good. Offensively, we had a couple of chances and we just didn’t execute it. Just go out and take care of us and we did a great job of doing that.”
Despite not executing in the first half, Lumberton had another stellar rushing performance from its running backs. Sophomore Robert Henry had a season-high 264 yards and two scores, and he’s now up to 576 yards and seven touchdowns through three games.
The Panthers are now averaging 386 rushing yards per game. Like last week, Jones credited his offensive line and his fullback senior Kavoris Howard for the success of the running game.
“I thought (Henry) got better Friday night,” Jones said. “I thought his vision was better and things we worked on and corrected from the week before. He worked hard in the offseason and he’s reaping the rewards of it right now.
“It was a total team effort.”
Jones entered the season wanting more from his passing game, but so far, it hasn’t happened. Senior quarterback Jared Tribett has only completed 28 percent of his passes for 146 yards and no touchdowns.
Tribett, a three-year starter, is a proven passer, so it’s only a matter of time before things get rolling through the air.
“(The statistics are) a little deceiving,” Jones said. “We had a long pass, we had another short pass that we completed and we were off on the others that we didn’t pull down. We are close, and it’s going to click for us. We know that. We’re going to go out in practice and I can tell you that’s a point of emphasis for us. We have to get better and we have to do a better job of protecting. We didn’t do a good job of pass protecting that other night.”
Friday night, the Panthers put their undefeated record on the line against winless Franklin County. The Bulldogs have allowed over 40 points in each of the first three games, and they’ve scored 10 or less in two of those games.
Franklin County is the fourth straight team Lumberton has played that is in a higher classification. Including the Bulldogs, a 3A team, the Panthers have played two 3A teams, a 4A school and a 2A. Despite being 0-3, Jones doesn’t want his players thinking to relax this week.
“We better not overlook them because they have talent all over the field,” Jones said. “They have a quarterback who can really go. Kind of like us, they’ve played some bigger schools. I can promise you we’re going to have our hands full. That record doesn’t mean much.”
