by T. Scott Boatright
HAYNESVILLE — Sometimes Goliath wins.
Playing David to the Biblical giant, the Lincoln Preparatory School football team fell to defending Class 1A state runner-up Haynesville by the score of 45-6 in a district contest played at Red Franklin Stadium.
The Panthers fired the first salvo at the Golden Tornado by recovering a Haynesville fumble on the second play from scrimmage, setting Lincoln Prep up with a first-and-10 at the HHS 38-yard line.
After being stopped on three straight plays, Lincoln Prep faked a punt with a direct snap to upback D’Tavion Wright, who danced his way for 16 yards and a first down at the Haynesville 22-yard line.
But that’s as close to the Haynesville goal line the Panthers got after turning the ball over on downs.
Haynesville then struck on a two-play scoring drive as Jayden Green broke loose for 27 yards to set up a 22-yard scoring scamper by Critton that put the Golden Tornado on top 7-0 midway through the opening stanza.
The storm Lincoln Prep coach Glen Hall and Panthers were facing was only getting started.
“Tonight we were like a punch-drunk boxer,” Hall said. “We got hit in the face and we just never did recover.
“We had some changes early on. We got some turnovers. But we never did take advantage. We played well in spurts, but didn’t take advantage when we got some opportunities.
Lincoln Prep countered the Golden Hurricane’s opening blow with a shot of its own as Wright escaped for a 30-yard run that moved the ball to the Panthers’ 47-yard line.
But two plays later LPS quarterback Jordan Brown was intercepted to give the ball back to Haynesville at its own 36.
The Golden Tornado then churned up 64 yards on five plays, with a 20-yard scamper by Donnie Critton setting up a one-yard touchdown run by Yahson Meadors to push their lead to 14-0 with 3:56 remaining in the first quarter.
Haynesville upped its lead to 21-0 on the first play of the second quarter as Meadors slashed 19 yards to paydirt.
Another Haynesville interception set up a five-yard scoring strike from Washington to Wood that increased the Golden Tornado advantage to 28-0 with 4:31 left before intermission.
Lincoln Prep stopped another Haynesville scoring opportunity as Cenario Wilson’s interception gave the ball back to the Panthers at their own two-yard line.
But after Wright was stopped for no gain on first down, Haynesville’s Washington, playing defensive back in addition to his quarterbacking duties, snagged a Wright pass at the Lincoln Prep 30-yard line and raced it back for a pick six that gave the Golden Tornado a 35-0 with less than a minute remaining in the first half.
The game went into a running clock format to start the third quarter, with the Panthers scoring their lone touchdown on a 35-yard run by Jaylin Huntley in the third quarter before Washington connected on a touchdown pass to Jadarius Hampton to put the Golden Tornado on top 42-6.
“I made the decision to go with the running clock (before the standard 42-point lead rule),” Hall said. “We had gotten behind and we were starting to get a little frustrated out there and I didn’t want the kids to get so frustrated they’d get kicked out of the game.”
Haynesville capped off its Homecoming win with junior kicker Elijah Bray adding a field goal on the final play of the game.
“We went to the Wildcat (offensive set) and they stacked the line on us,” Hall said. “We had to throw some but didn’t do anything in our regular set and threw interceptions and didn’t throw the ball when we were supposed to.
“Yes, we made a lot of mistakes against a very good team. We just have to put this one behind us and move on. There’s a lot of season left. We just have to move forward.”
Lincoln Prep fell to 3-2 overall and 1-1 in District 1-1 while Haynesville is 5-0 and 2-0.
“”We’ve got five games ahead of us and we’ve still got the opportunity to end up going even 8-2,” Hall said. “We’re still in pretty good shape. We just have to come back on Monday starting with zero and get ourselves back together.”
Next up for Lincoln Prep will be their Homecoming game as it plays host to Ringgold with kickoff set for 7 p.m. Thursday at Panthers Field.
Ringgold stands at 2-3 and 1–1 in district play after being defeated 54-6 by Block Friday night.
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