By T. Scott Boatright
Lincoln Preparatory School’s defense kept things competitive early on Thursday night on Senior Night at Panthers Field.
But after a big play by Cedar Creek late in the second quarter, the Panthers seemed to toss out the white flag as the Cougars roared to a 44-0 win.
Cedar Creek scored on the game’s opening drive, marching 53 yards on six plays to go up early 6-0 after its two-point conversion attempt failed.
“In football, you have to have heart, and we don’t have it,” Hall said. “”We got to change some things. Everything Cedar Creek did, we knew. We were right there 80% of the time but just didn’t make plays.
“We told one of our guys 20 times to squeeze, but he wouldn’t squeeze. Sometimes you just don’t know what else you can do. Back in the old days they said ‘it ain’t the Xs and the Os, it’s the Jimmys and the Joes.”
Cedar Creek pushed its lead to 14-0 at the 9:42 mark of the second stanza after a 13-play drive.
After being held to a three-and-out possession, the Panthers punted with Cedar Creek taking over at its own 30-yard line. The Cougars then marched as deep as the Lincoln Prep 37-yard line before fumbling the ball away to give the ball back to the Panthers on their own 42 with 3:17 remaining in the first half.
But on the ensuing play, Lincoln Prep quarterback Jordan Brown’s pass was intercepted by Cedar Creek’s Noah Durrett, who returned it 49 yards for a pick six to push the Cougars’ advantage to 20-0 (after a failed two-point conversion run attempt) with 3:06 left in the second quarter.
Lincoln Prep took over the next possession at its own 47 and after a six-yard pass from Brown to D’Tavion Wright followed by a four-yard run by Writer put the ball on the Cedar Cedar 43-yard line.
But then the Panthers fumbled the ball away.
Lincoln Prep’s defense did a solid job of not giving Cedar Creek another scoring opportunity before halftime as the Cougars maintained that 20-0 lead at intermission.
“If our quarterback throws the ball over the defender’s head like we practiced, then the receiver scores,” Hall said of the Cougars’ pick six score. “Then you’re talking about 14-6 or 14-8 going in at the half. That changes everything.
“Even with a little hustle by our fullback on the interception, and I watched him — he saw the interception and does this (motions just standing with hands on his hips watching Durrett race the pick six to paydirt) — he could have made the play. It’s just little things like that that let you know you ain’t ready for the big leagues.”
The Cougars’ stretched their lead to 28-0 at the 3:24 mark of the third quarter before scoring again with 11:53 remaining in the contest to make it 36-0.
On the ensuing drive, the Panthers moved as far as they would from their own goal line in the second half — their own 42-yard line — before punting the ball away.
Cedar Creek’s final score with 6:11 left on the scoreboard made it 44-0 and started a running clock that made quick work of Lincoln Prep’s final possession before time ran out.
“It’s bad,” Hall said. “It’s a reflection of me. I talk to my coaches all the time and ask what they see, and they see the same thing I see. I’ve had a 1-9 team, but they played hard. They played hard. But I’ve never had a team that when they get down by 14 or 20 they give up, and that’s what we did.”
Now the Panthers, who stand at 2-6 overall and 0-2 in District 2-1A, look to close out the regular season next Friday as they hit the road to play at defending state champion Ouachita Christian.
“Now it’s going to be up to our team,” Hall said. “We’ll just see if we want to be competitive. We’re heading into a lion’s cage with nothing but a pencil to fight with. So if you’re going in there to fight, you better stick him in the eye.
“We’ve got to find some kind of way to get something going and at least give an effort, because they’re going to be trying to win and get to that No. 1 seed. I think they’re No. 4 now. We were No. 24, so we’re probably going to fall out of the top 24 and we probably won’t make the playoffs. But we still have to go compete, no matter what.”
