Last week’s matchup with Resurrection was a big one for Lumberton, but this week’s contest is even bigger. While the win over the Eagles allowed the Panthers to move a step closer toward a district title, when the Panthers hit the road this week, it’ll be for the district title.
Lumberton (7-2, 4-0 in Region 4-1A) travels to Stringer (9-1, 4-0) for the right to a No. 1 seed in the 1A playoffs, which begins in two weeks. Both teams still have one more game on the schedule, but the winner will own the tiebreaker making it impossible for the loser to jump back into first place.
But, it’s just another week for Lumberton coach Zach Jones and his Panthers.
“It’s no different than any other week,” Jones said. “The same thing – focus on us and do what we’re supposed to do. If we do that, I like our chances.”
Lumberton’s performances in its four district games have set up another opportunity for a district championship, and its rush defense has been one of the biggest reasons why.
In those four games, the Panthers have allowed an average of 80 rushing yards per contest, with only East Marion’s Jarveon Howard seeing success against the Panthers’ defense, as he gained 142 yards on the ground with the team recording 189 yards. Resurrection was held to 34 total rushing yards, Sacred Heart had -1 and Mount Olive rushed for 98 yards.
“That’s our thing, first and foremost,” Jones said. “We want to stop the run. We gave up some passing yards Friday night. We did, for the most part, shut down the run, and when you make somebody one dimensional, it makes it easier to stop them. I’m proud of our guys on defense, and I thought they played extremely hard. It was a physical ballgame and the guys really showed their toughness Friday night.”
Stringer’s ground attack is led by junior Anthony Thomas, who has 1,295 yards and 18 touchdowns on 117 carries. As a team, the Red Devils have 2,208 rushing yards and 30 scores on 295 attempts.
Lumberton knows a lot of these Stringer players because most of them played against the Panthers last year. Dyess was the quarterback and Thomas rushed for 1,700 yards and 21 touchdowns a season ago, and Jones said they’re all a year older and a year stronger. Lumberton beat the Red Devils 34-14 in the regular season and 66-14 in the second round of the playoffs.
“We know we’re going to get their best shot Friday night, and I’m sure they remember us beating them twice last year,” Jones said. “We’re going up there to try and take care of us and win a district championship.”
Like Jones said, Lumberton has given up more passing yards than he’d like, but so far it hasn’t effective its wins in the district. Stringer’s Cayleb Dyess has recorded 19 touchdowns, six interceptions and 1,375 passing yards on 67-of-126 passing.
Because Stringer wins most of its ballgames by a wide margin, Dyess doesn’t have to pass as much. In close games, like the Red Devils’ six-point win over Resurrection, Dyess passed for 344 yards on 15-of-23 passing with four touchdowns and two interceptions. He also had 227 yards against Enterprise and 192 yards on East Marion.
“We have to be sure we know our assignments in the secondary,” Jones said. “We had a couple of slip-ups Friday night and we got them fixed later on, but we don’t need to spot them 12 points like we did Resurrection Friday night. We have to make sure we’re on top of that and everybody is on the same page.”
Stringer’s head coach, John Brown, has implemented a strong defense, too. Resurrection and East Marion are the two only teams to score double-digits, as the Red Devils blanked Mount Olive and only allowed Salem to score seven.
Brown is a familiar face for Lumberton, too.
“Brown is the defensive coordinator here when they won state championships back in ’04 and ’05, so he’s a really good coach,” Jones said. “He knows his stuff. They’re actually really similar to us on defense, as far as how they line up and everything. The defensive line is gritty and get after it, the linebackers get downhill really fast and we’ll just have to do what we’re supposed to and do our jobs.”
