By T. Scott Boatright
MONROE — Lincoln Preparatory School head coach Glen Hall knew his Panthers would have to execute to have a chance to win Thursday night on the road as they played at Ouachita Christian School.
Instead it was the OCS that did the executing as the Eagles soared to a 59-0 District 2-1A win over the Panthers.
After losing that contest, the Panthers now await the release of Louisiana High School Athletic Association Division IV Select School playoff brackets to see if and where they will begin a postseason stand.
Hall is confident that his Panthers, who ended the regular season at 3-7, will squeeze into one of the final two Division Select playoff spots. The question for him is who will be his team’s first-round opponent.
OCS took about three minutes to hit paydirt on the opening drive of the game before recovering an onsides kick and scoring quickly to make it 14-0.
Lincoln Prep recorded on a pair of first downs on the ensuing drive before OCS forced a Panthers punt that only went for eight yards.
The Panthers stopped the Eagles on the ensuing drive as freshman Trey Spann picked off a pass in the end zone, but OCS quickly shut down Lincoln Prep’s drive, and went on to score four more touchdowns to start a running clock with two minutes left in the first half.
Ouachita Christian added 17 points in the second half to move to 9-1 on the season.
“Now we just have to wait and see,” Hall said. “We need to see who’ll we’ll have to go up against, and if this team really wants to be in the playoffs. We need to find that fire. We need to find that ‘want to win.’ That ‘will to win.’
“Because of the top teams getting byes, we’ll probably be facing a ninth- or 10th-seeded team. That should give us a chance. You never know what’s going to happen in the playoffs. But we have to want to win. And the past few games, we haven’t shown anything like that.”
Playoff brackets will be announced Sunday. GeauxPreps.com’s playoff projections have the Panthers facing Southern Lab or possibly Ascension Catholic.
“It doesn’t matter who or where we play if we don’t go out and execute and show that we want to win,” Hall said. “But I’m going to work hard getting ready and I hope the team does, too, because if you can win that first playoff game and get some momentum, you never know what might happen.
“We knew we were playing one of the best teams in the state tonight. It’s not the fact that we lost but the way we lost that gets me. I feel like Muhammud Ali, believing we’re the greatest and getting knocked out on the first punch. That’s what it felt like tonight. But now we’re back to 0-0. We just have to believe we can win and want to do it.”
