By T. Scott Boatright
MONROE — Lincoln Preparatory School got off to a strong start Friday night playing at Richwood.
Unfortunately for the Panthers, that start was very much short-lived as Richwood celebrated its Homecoming game by defeating Lincoln Prep 40-6 at Mackie Freeze Stadium.
Richwood took the opening kickoff, but Lincoln Prep quickly took possession of the ball after the Rams fumbled the ball away on a dive play to their fullback.
But the Panthers stripped the ball away and recovered the fumble for that Lincoln Prep strong start.
“That gave us momentum right off the start,” said Lincoln Prep coach Glen Hall. “Then on the first play of the series, we ran a dive play and on the second play we ran a toss play to the left. And our back fumbled the ball right there around midfield with nobody even close to him.
“And a Richwood player ran in, scooped up the fumble and ran it back for the score. And that was it. That strong start we had disappeared just like that, and we never did much of anything after that.”
Richwood went on to build a 40-0 lead until late in the game when Lincoln Prep’s D’Tavion Wright broke loose for a 54-yard touchdown run for the Panthers’ lone score.
Hall said that mental preparation is hurting his team when it comes to executing during their games.
“We’ve just got to practice like we play. We don’t practice hard enough. We don’t want to be serious all the time at practice and treat it like a game. You’ve got to be as serious in practice as you are during a game.
“And when you don’t practice that way, things happen like what happened to us tonight.”
Next up Lincoln Prep (2-4) is its District 2-1A season opener at home against St. Frederick starting at 7 p.m. Thursday night at Panthers Field.
St. Frederick stands at 3-3 on the season after falling 41-7 at Ouachita Christian Friday night.
“I told the team after the game it’s not going to do any good to feel sorry for ourselves, because the schedule is just going to get harder and harder.
“But I’m not going to quit and I’m not going to let this team quit. It’s hard with these young guys and I know they’re still learning. We’re just going to keep pushing forward, so we’ll get back out there next week and try to get this thing headed in the right direction.”
