By T. Scott Boatright
Momentum can be a fickle thing.
And in a back-and-forth game Thursday night at Jonesboro-Hodge’s Caldwell Peacock Stadium, momentum danced back and forth between the sidelines until late in the game, when things simply snowballed downhill for Lincoln Preparatory as the Panthers fell 42-20 to the Tigers.
The game was tied at 20-20 with a little more than two minutes remaining in the third quarter when a bad punt snap set Jonesboro-Hodge up in prime field position at the Lincoln Prep 36-yard line.
Five plays later, Tigers quarterback King Campbell connected with Channing Gray on a 27-yard scoring strike before hitting Gray again on a two-point conversion pass that put Jonesboro-Hodge up 28-20 with 11 minutes remaining in the contest.
Lincoln Prep was held to a three-and-out series on the ensuing possession before the Tigers blasted Lincoln Prep punter Karmelo Goins and blocked the attempt, setting Jonesboro-Hodge up at the Panthers’ 8-yard line.
But the Panthers recovered a fumble on the next play and pushed the ball out to their own 41-yard line, where on fourth-and-two, quarterback Jabari Levingston lost the ball to give JHHS possession at the Lincoln Prep 41.
Five plays later, Campbell hit Tysen Burks on a 24-yard touchdown pass that pushed the JHHS advantage to 34-20 with 2:51 remaining.
On Lincoln Prep’s next play from scrimmage, Levingston was sacked in the end zone for a safety that stretched the Tigers’ advantage to 36-20 with 2:35 left on the clock.
The dagger came on the next play from scrimmage as Jonesboro-Hodge running back Lontre’vious Burns broke loose on a 47-yard scoring scamper with 2:18 remaining in the contest.
Panthers coach Chaunce Davison said it is a sign that his team needs to focus and learn to put in a full week of focused practice before staying focused for all four quarters of a game, from start to finish.
“We just need to learn how to play football and learn to play through adversity,” Davison said. “I see now we’re going to have adversity pretty much all year. We’ve got to play through that, regardless of whatever it might be.”
Before losing focus in the final stanza, Lincoln Prep put up a fight, trading blows with the Tigers for the first three quarters of the contest.
Jonesboro-Hodge struck first, taking advantage of a blown coverage with Campbell hitting a wide-open Jamarlon Johnson to go on top 6-0 at the 8:57 mark of the first quarter.
Lincoln Prep countered with a 50-yard scoring drive, with Levingston firing a screen pass that Aiden Ferguson hauled in and took 32 yards to paydirt to tie things up at 6-6 with 6:21 left on the opening-quarter clock.
A little more than three minutes later, the Tigers punched back, scoring on a short touchdown run and adding a two-point conversion that pushed Jonesboro-Hodge’s lead to 14-6.
But Lincoln Prep again quickly countered with Levingston hitting Josiah Spann on a 58-yard touchdown pass to tie the game at 14-14 with 50 seconds left in the first quarter.
The score remained knotted at 14-14 at halftime before the Panthers battled back with a slow and solid 50-yard drive culminating with Levingston’s 1-yard touchdown run that put Lincoln Prep on top 20-14.
This time it was Jonesboro-Hodge’s turn to counter, with the Tigers mounting a 56-yard drive ending with a 4-yard touchdown pass to tie the game at 20-20 with 4:36 left in the third quarter.
Penalties became problematic for the Panthers at various points of the game, something Davison wants to see his team improve on.
“We were just trying to keep (Jonesboro-Hodge) off of us,” Davison said. “I thought we were doing a pretty good job of it but it got away from us. We’ve got to practice a full week. We can’t let anything distract us. We’ve got to come out here and play a full game. We didn’t play a full game. We didn’t coach a full game. We’ve got to put together a full week and full game.”
