By T. Scott Boatright
The Lincoln Preparatory School football team will be looking to avoid a two-year-old repeat when the Panthers hit the road to play at Jonesboro-Hodge starting at 7 p.m. today at Caldwell-Peacock Stadium.
Lincoln Prep stands at 2-1 while the Tigers stand at 0-3 following losses against Winnfield (27-0), at West Ouachita (47-0) and at Delhi Charter 26-20.
The Panthers shook off a season-opening loss 36-6 at D-Arbonne Woods with a home win over Magnolia School of Excellence (49-0) and at Beekman Charter 46-8.
Jonesboro-Hodge defeated the Panthers 34-0 in Grambling last year.
The last time the Tigers started out at 0-3 was in 2022 when Jonesboro-Hodge snapped that season-opening three-game losing streak by defeating Lincoln Prep 30-26 in Jonesboro.
Lincoln Prep coach Glen Hall said the key to preventing a repeat loss to the Tigers starts with containing Joneshoro-Hodge quarterback Dakota Knox, who passed for 295 yards and three scores during last week’s loss at Delhi Charter.
“He’s a good athlete with a good arm and good legs,” Hall said. “He’s just a good all-around quarterback and their offense starts with him. He also has some good receivers to throw to, so slowing down their passing attack will be a big focus for us.”
The Tigers’ Christian McGuire set a new JHHS all time single game receiving record with 230 yards and all three of this team’s touchdowns, including receptions of 76 and 74 yards.
“They like to throw it long,” Hall said. “The good thing for us is that we have a pretty veteran and talented defensive secondary with some depth. We have some guys who are good ball-hawks. Verlanski Glosson has four interceptions so far while Cenario Wilson has three and Tre Spann has one, so we’ll be asking our whole defensive backfield to go find the football.
“We’re good ball-hawks who can defend and tackle well. I expect Jonesboro-Hodge to attack us with the pass, but we’re deep enough so that I’ll put six DBs back in our secondary if that’s what it takes.”
Jonesboro-Hodge has won eight straight over the Panthers, and that’s a streak Hall would like to see broken tonight.
“Their coach, Terrance Blakenship, is a good coach and a friend of mine,” Hall said. “But it’s a competitive thing, so I would really like to get a win over him because that’s something I haven’t done yet.
“And(Jonesboro-Hodge) moved down (from Class 2A to 1A), so this year it’s a district game — the first district game of the season for both of us.”
Lincoln Prep’s offense has been rolling with what Hall calls his three-headed monster — senior quarterback Jaylin Huntley along with fellow seniors D’Tavion Wright and Verlanksi Glosson splitting time at Wildcat quarterback helping the Panthers average 33.6 points per game offensively.
But Hall got some good news this week with OL/DR Jamarion Pouncey being cleared to play after missing the first part of the season with an injury.
“We’ve been having to move guys around trying to fill his hole, and that’s a pretty big hole to fill,” Hall said about Pouncy. “So getting him back out there is big, and hopefully he can help put some pressure on the (Jonesboro-Hodge) quarterback and force him to make some quick throws that maybe — hopefully — he’ll end up regretting. We have to try to get after him.”
