By T. Scott Boatright
Football can be a game of inches.
It can also be a game of brief minutes, if not seconds.
The Lincoln Preparatory School learned that lesson the hard way Friday night.
Lincoln Prep saw D’Arbonne Woods break open a tight game in the waning minutes of the first half Friday night as the Timberwolves marched to a 36-6 home win over the Panthers in the season opener for both teams.
But it was anything but a runaway game early on.
The Panthers did get punched in the mouth early, as they drove to the D’Arbonne Woods 37-yard line off of strong play from D’Tavion Wright, who turned in a 17-yard run and nine-yard reception, on that drive before Lincoln Prep turned the ball over on downs.
D’Arbonne Woods responded by marching 72 yards on seven plays, with Dalton Albritton breaking free on a 36-yard quarterback keeper that put the Timberwolves up 6-0 at the 5:33 mark of the opening stanza.
Then things turned into a slugfest.
At least until the final minutes of the first half.
That’s when the wheels suddenly came off for the Panthers.
One of numerous bad snaps for Lincoln Prep resulted in a safety that pushed the Timberwolves’ advantage to 8-0 with 2:46 remaining in the second quarter.
“Problems with our center snaps killed us all game long,” said Lincoln Prep coach Glen Hall. “We rolled the ball all over the field without it getting to the quarterback, and that really cost us.”
The late first-half storm was only beginning for the Panthers.
D’Arbonne Woods stretched its lead to 16-0 on an 8-yard run by Albritton followed by a two-point conversion run by Stromile before the Timberwolves added an 80-yard interception return for a score with no time remaining in the first half.
“We were short a player who didn’t go out there and my quarterback just ended up having to throw ‘a punt’ that they returned for a score,” Hall said. “It all fell apart on us that fast.”
D’Arbonne Woods pushed its lead to 29-0 with 20 seconds remaining in the third quarter to make it 29-0 in favor of the Timberwolves before scoring again early in the fourth quarter to move on top 36-0.
Lincoln Prep’s lone score came with 6:48 left on the clock as quarterback Jordan Brown connected on a scoring strike to Cenario Wilson.
“Every time we took a step forward we took two steps back,” Hall said. “I try not to be frustrated because I did see some good things. But I also saw a team that got to a point way too early that thought they couldn’t win.
“That’s on me and we’re going to fix it. I guess I’m not doing a good enough job coaching them. But I believe in this team and know they have more in them. That’s what bothers me. I just have to get them to buy into the system and believe in themselves the way I believe in them.”
Next up for the Panthers (0-1) will be a home game against Magnolia Charter on Friday.
“We just have to put this one behind us — learn what we can from it and let it go,” Hall said. “We saw some good things and a lot of bad things. We need to balance that out. We need to find some consistency. And that’s my job. We just need to get back to it and work on getting better. There’s a lot of season left ahead.”
