The Lumberton-North Forrest matchup has had its fair share of intense games over the last few years. As long as Lumberton coach Zach Jones has been at the helm, these two have played three straight four-point games.
The Panthers won a high-scoring contest in 2016 and a low scoring game last season, but they fell in another offensive slugfest in 2015. It remains to be seen what kind of game the two will play Friday night.
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. in Lumberton.
“Our kids look forward to it and their kids look forward to it,” Jones said. “We’ve played three times since I’ve been here and they’ve all been one score football games. We’ve been fortunate the last few years, but it’ll take a really good effort Friday night. We’re going to have to clean up a lot of mistakes because they’re a well-coached football team and they have athletes all over the field.
“We’re going to have our hands full with them.”
The Panthers return a deep backfield with senior quarterback Jared Tribett and running backs Davion Edwards and Robert Henry. As a freshman, Henry was a 1,200-yard rusher while Edwards added 700-plus yards and 100 tackles on defense as a junior.
North Forrest graduated its quarterback from 2017, but sophomore Rhyen Brisco is back after averaging nearly 10 yards per carry last season. The Eagles also graduated two more offensive skill players who made a huge impact, but they still have weapons all over the field.
The Eagles have gained another skill player to their roster, as junior Eric Robinson transferred back into the program after playing a season at Presbyterian Christian in Hattiesburg.
“I know they lost Daylyn Croom, but Leon Jones is a great athlete,” Jones said. “He’s got a big-time arm, he can really get it down the field and he can run the football. To me, he’s a more dangerous runner than Croom was. He gets downhill really quick and he’s not scared of contact.
“I’ll be honest with you, I watched them the other night and I think they’re just as good or better than they were last year.”
Defensively, North Forrest lost its top five leading tacklers from 2017. Jones and some Lumberton coaches were at North Forrest’s jamboree last Friday, and they walked away impressed with the new-look Eagles’ defense.
“They’re playing some young guys, but I think they play extremely hard,” Jones said. “They have some size on the defensive line so that’ll be a challenge for us to move them. We’re going to have to throw the football to keep them honest. Our M.O. is to run the football, everybody knows that, but we can’t be one-dimensional.”
As Jones stated, Lumberton will need to throw it to be successful offensively, but the Panthers don’t have a lot of experience coming back at receiver. Tribett is a three-year starter at quarterback, but they don’t have a player returning who totaled more than 300 receiving yards.
Senior Daylan Young had 225 yards on 27 catches last season, but no other returner had more than five grabs in 2017.
Lumberton opted to play its jamboree at Mississippi State last week, taking down Kosciusko 18-14 in the two-quarter scrimmage. Jones was happy to see his team beat a 4A team with a Division I receiver on the roster, but he did see some things he wanted his squad to clean up prior to Friday night’s contest with North Forrest.
“We had a fumble when we had a chance to put the game away and we have to cut that out,” Jones said. “We had some missed assignments along the offensive line and we have to fix that. Defensively, we gave up a few plays in the secondary that we have to fix. Overall, first game in a big atmosphere and big stadium against a bigger school, I was proud with how we handled it.”
