By T. Scott Boatright
SIBLEY — The old football adage says that sometimes a team’s best offense can be its defense.
Lincoln Preparatory School took full advantage of that saying Friday night as the Panthers held on for a 6-0 win at Lakeside.
It was the Panthers’ second shutout of the season after defeating Plain Dealing 44-0 in Week Two.
“We played great defense,” Lincoln Prep coach Glen Hall said of his team’s effort against Lakeside, which fell to 3-2 on the season. “We ran around, we made plays and did the things we had to do to be able to pull out the win.”
Hall couldn’t say the same about the Panthers’ offense.
“Offensively, we just kept shooting ourselves in the foot,” Hall said. “We should have scored three other touchdowns but kept giving it up in the red zone.
“We had a first and goal on the Lakeside 1-yard line and the center snapped the ball over our quarterback’s head three straight times.
Starter Jordan Brown went the distance behind center for the Panthers.
“He completed about seven passes,” Hall said. “He completed a couple of sprintouts. We ran quite a bit of play action and some backside slants. We threw a couple of flares to our running backs, too.
Starting linebacker Wimberly got a chance to see some action in his first action at running back for the Panthers this season and hauled in a pair of those passes.
Lincoln Prep’s lone score came when D’Tavion Wright broke loose on a 55-yard run down inside the Lakeside 1-yard line before Lamarrion Burton plunged to paydirt for the touchdown.
“The thing is, we didn’t struggle moving the ball on offense,” Hall said. “We just kept making mistakes at key points in our drives, and they were always in the red zone.
“We’ve got to get more going offensively,” Hall said. “That will keep the clock moving and help keep us in the game with time running down. We have to find a way to move the ball and actually score with it.”
Lincoln Prep will next play at Richwood (2-3) starting at 7 p.m. Friday.
