By T. Scott Boatright
Football playoff implications are at stake for both teams as Lincoln Preparatory School plays at Arcadia High School at 7 p.m. today.
Currently one of those teams stands in the spot for a final playoff berth while the other stands on spot out of a potential postseason game.
Only 24 teams play in both the Louisiana High School Athletics Association Select School and Nonselect School playoffs. Currently the Panthers (4-5 overall, 3-3 in District 1-1A) stand in 24th in the Select School power rankings while the Hornets (3-6 and 3-3) are 35th in the Nonselect School power rankings.
“If there’s such a thing as a must-win game, this is it,” said Lincoln Prep coach Chaunce Davison. “This is win or stay at home for the playoffs. If we want to be sure to get into the playoffs, we have to win. We don’t want to go through a thing of having to wait and see based on power rankings. Win and we should be in. We don’t want to walk off the field at Arcadia not knowing whether we’ll be in the playoffs or not.”
Lincoln Prep is coming off a 49-0 win over Plain Dealing while Arcadia has lost two straight by a combined score of 100-14 to Cedar Creek and Haynesville.
The fact that the Panthers are playing Arcadia is simply another reason Davison isn’t concerned about getting his team fired up to face the Hornets.
“They’re our rivals based on location,” Davison said. “These kids on both teams, a lot of them have known each other since they were young. That’s the good thing. The bad thing is that the Arcadia players will be just as fired up as our guys.”
It’s for that reason that the mental aspect of the game is something Davison has stressed this week in practice.
“We’ve got to focus on our jobs and responsibilities,” Davison said. “We can’t do anything foolish happening because emotions take over. That can’t happen. Fired up is good. Foolish is bad. These players have to remember that. We have to focus on execution and playing smart football. If we do that, then I think things should take care of themselves.”
The Panthers have won three out of their last four and have played offensively in all of those contests, even a 65-32 loss at Cedar Creek two weeks ago.
A midseason change of inserting Josh Kelly into the starting quarterback role seemed to kickstart the Lincoln Prep offense. Kelly has thrown for 380 yards and four touchdowns over those past four games while adding three more scores on the ground.
“Josh has become one of our big leaders on the offensive side of the ball,” Davison said. “Plus he’s become our kicker and gives us field goal and extra point kicking talent that we haven’t seen around here for a while. We need him to keep improving and doing his thing against Arcadia.
Running back Jabari Levingston and running back/receiver Trey Spann have also played key roles in helping the Panthers average 37.0 points over the last four games.
Spann has totaled 154 rushing yards on 15 carries while adding 10 receptions for 240 yards and four scores over those past four games while Levingston has added 348 yards on the ground on 37 attempts while also catching six passes for 54 yards and a touchdown during that same game span.
“We’ve got to keep that going,” Davison said. “We have to play good defense, too. We need to go out and play a focused game from start to finish, until the final second runs off the clock. The players know what they need to do. Now they just have to go out there and do it.”
