By T. Scott Boatright
The football field can bring a wide variety of emotions.
According to Chapter 13:55-57 in the Bible’s Book of Matthew, familiarity breeds contempt.
But when football teams are familiar with each other, what is contempt during a game often becomes respect when those teams aren’t facing each other.
Expect a healthy dose of gridiron contempt starting at 7 p.m. today as Lincoln Preparatory School plays host to Jonesboro-Hodge at Panthers Stadium.
“It’s like it was last week against Arcadia — a lot of these kids from both teams have grown up around each and know each other,” said Lincoln Prep coach Glen Hall about his Panthers and the Tigers from Jonesboro-Hodge. “But while they’re friends, that also means that they really both want to win and beat the other.
“So our team will be fired up. And that hasn’t been a problem so far. Getting them fired up is easy. Keeping them fired up while staying calm enough to focus and execute — that’s going to be the trick about this game.”
Hall said he told his team earlier this week that they’re still like an experiment in process at this point, albeit an experiment that he feels has the potential to become a finished project that can yield explosive results.
“Part of the thing I love the most in coaching is sitting there looking at film (video), trying to find things — weak points — we can use against the other team,” Hall said. “That’s both on offense and defense. But after all these years I’ve put into this business, I’m pretty good at watching and finding things we can use against an opponent on both sides of the ball.
“I told the team this week that they’re an experiment getting pretty close to blowing up, especially on offense. Our defense does a pretty good job of flying around the field and making plays. But now I’m watching film and thinking like a scientist, mixing oil and gas trying to find the right mix to make this team explode. We’ve shown flashes, but it has to be more consistent. But I think I ‘ve found a few new things that I think maybe can make that happen this week.”
The game is a key one for both teams as they each make the move into midseason play at 1-2.
Lincoln Prep opened the season with a 14-8 loss to Madison before beating Plain Dealing 44-0.
Last week the Panthers poured on a furious rally attempt but ran out of time, falling 36-30 to Arcadia.
Jonesboro-Hodge opened the season with a 40-30 win over General Trass before falling 44-12 to West Ouachita and 54-12 last week against Bunkie.
Hall experts an inside/outside sort of game this week, with portant factor being the Tigers’ outside running attack against the dives and traps the Panthers prefer to attack with.
“They have speed and run a lot of sweeps and that kind of thing,” Hall said.about J-Hodge. “We tend to pound the ball more inside, mixing in some play action trying to get our passing going little bit to help open things up.
“But it still comes down to execution and consistency, and the team that consistently executes better than the other (tonight) should be the one that walks out the winner.”
Lincoln Prep used a four-headed rushing monster last week with running backs Jaylin Huntley and LaMarion Burton along with fullbacks D’Tavion Wright and Marvin Johnson contributing to a rushing attack that was also bolstered by scampers from quarterback Jordan Brown.
Brown also turned in a career game passing, hitting Trey Spann on a pair of scoring strikes while adding another touchdown throw to Cenario Wilson
J-Hodge coach Terrance Blakenship will counter with Tigers’ quarterback Symeon Malone, who had a strong game passing in the season-opener before struggling with his aerial attack the past two contests.
“Blankenship is not going to change,” Hall said. “They’re going to run his system, so they’re going to do some speed sweeps to the receivers, they’re going to run the quarterback on some traps, they’re going to try to hit you deep on some long passes.
“They don’t throw a lot of inside routes. They just try to hit you deep and run outside with their backs. They’ve got a lot of speed. If we let them get outside, we’re going to have some problems. If we keep them boxed in and put a little pressure on the quarterback, I like our chances.”
