By T. Scott Boatright
The wheels came off for Lincoln Preparatory School Panthers before Thursday night’s home football game against Jonesboro-Hodge ever kicked off.
And by the time the final horn sounded, the Tigers had defeated Lincoln Prep 40-0 in a game in which the Panthers never got anything going.
The opening kickoff was delayed 80 minutes due to a scheduling snafu with the Louisiana High School Athletic Association referees, who had the game slated for tonight (instead of Thursday night) on their schedule.
And the game was played for the opening 16:48 with only half of its lights until diesel fuel arrived for the generator on the visitors’ sideline at the 5:12 mark of the second quarter.
It was simply that kind of night for the Panthers.
The Panthers didn’t break early. Jonesboro-Hodge took the opening kickoff and drove all the way to the Lincoln Prep 17-yard line before turning the ball over on downs.
But after holding Lincoln Prep to a three-and-out on its first possession, Jonesboro-Hodge took over the Panthers 37-yard and scored five plays later on a four-yard scoring scamper by quarterback Symeon Malone,
The Tigers pushed their advantage to 14-0 after connecting on a 88-yard touchdown pass and adding a two-point conversion with 6:59 remaining in the first half.
A punt block deep in Panthers’ territory gave the Tigers the ball back to Jonesboro-Hodge at the Lincoln Prep 23-yard line, and JHHS added another touchdown on a three-yard run by Karmakize Barber, who was hit in the backfield but broke free to make the score 20-0 with 5:42 left in the second quarter.
That was the score the Tigers led by at intermission, and the second half didn’t get any better for the Panthers.
“They quit,” Panthers coach Glen Hall said about his team after the game. “They didn’t want to come out and play hard. We got down and they quit. I appreciate the guys who kept fighting. But there weren’t enough of them. We had too many guys just quit on us tonight.”
Things didn’t get any better for the Panthers after halftime, who didn’t get their initial first down of the contest on a 22-yard run by Jaylin Huntley.
Lincoln Prep was hit with multiple delay of game and illegal procedure calls in the second half, and were also hit with a personal foul when a player came off the sideline to get involved in a jawing match between Panthers receiver Cenario Wilson and a Jonesboro-Hodge defensive back.
“I ain’t never seen anything like that in my life,” Hall said. “I have never seen that in my life — a guy coming off the sideline wanting to fight. We’re not going to do that. We’re going to play with whoever is left — whoever wants to come out here, work hard, play disciplined football and do things the right way.”
Jonesboro-Hodge pushed its lead to 26-0 at the 2:37 mark of the third quarter on a quarterback bootleg by Malone, who faked a handoff to his running back before rolling right.
And the Tigers sealed the deal on back to back pick sixes with returns of 70 and 35 yards to record their final scores that started a running clock 33 seconds into the fourth quarter.
During Hall’s postgame talk to his team, Huntley kept talking and sounding off until Hall asked him to leave. Huntley walked off, leaving his helmet and shoulder pads on the sideline when Hall requested him to do so.
Hall then told the team that anyone else who also wanted to leave and didn’t want to play disciplined football, Wilson stood up and walked off, too, also leaving his helmet and shoulder pads along the sideline.
“We’re going to play without them if that’s the way they want it,” Hall said. “You’re talking about guys who don’t want to be disciplined. Don’t want to play disciplined football. To be a good football team — a competitive football team — you have to keep trying and keep fighting, even when the times are tough.
“So we’re going to come back (today) and look at film and see who wants to be part of this team and who wants to do things the right way and not quit. We’re going to do things the right way, and anyone that wants to be part of this team is going to have to play that way. Without quitting.”
