By T. Scott Boatright
It wasn’t the script Lincoln Prep had hoped for Friday night in the Panthers’ District 1-1A showdown at Cedar Creek.
The Panthers were to see “An Upset at Origin Field.”
Instead, the game played out more like a Halloween version of “The Good, the Bad and The Ugly.”
In a game that saw the teams combined for 97 points and 874 yards, Cedar Creek earned a Homecoming victory by the score of 65-32.
The good for Lincoln Prep was passing attack unlike any unleashed for the Panthers in years and years.
And the bad was their play in the trenches, which was dominated by the Cougars, who ran for 457 yards and eight touchdowns.
All that ended up in the ugly team stat of 12 penalties on the night, including some late personal fouls as frustration set in.
Panthers coach Chaunce Davison let his team know in their postgame talk that was unacceptable.
“That can’t happen,” Davison said. “We’ve got to learn to be better than that. Yes, we were frustrated. That’s no excuse. That can’t happen. It’s football. We practiced for getting some calls we thought we were supposed to get or that we didn’t get. But that’s football. You’re going to go into places where you’re not going to get those calls.’
Trailing 41-12 by halftime didn’t help the Panthers’ attempt to keep their composure.
“The biggest thing is that we got hit in the mouth,” Davison said. They hit us in the mouth and we just have to learn how to hit back without all that extra stuff.”
Davison admitted he was surprised by Cedar Creek’s line domination on both sides of the ball.
“We didn’t see this happening — not like this,” Davison said. “As a staff we’re just going to have to go back in and draw up something new. I didn’t see this coming. I thought we were going to be a little more physical. But it didn’t happen like that.”
Another part of the good was the play of Panthers’ sophomore quarterback Josh Kelly, who connected on 13-of–21 pass attempts for 269 yards, including scoring strikes of 51 and 60 yards to Trey Spann, 60 yards to Jarbari Levingston
“Josh has quarterback awareness,” Davison said. “He knows how to play this game as a quarterback. Sometimes you have jitters and might make a mistake or two, but he played well tonight. We gave him some bad snaps every now and then. That’s something that we as coaches are going to have to fix.”
Levingston finished with five receptions for 122 yards while adding 101 yards and another score on 14 carries.
“Jabari is an athlete,”: Davison said. “He’s one of those kids that if you get him the ball, running or catching, he’s going to make something happen.”
Spann hauled in five catches for 153 yards and his two scores.
While Lincoln Prep did some damage with their passing game, Davison wouldn’t say he was ready to change his offense to an aerial based attack.
“We’re going to worry about that when we get there next year,” Davison said. “But I can say we’re going to use what we got.”
At 3-5 overall and 2-3 in district play, Lincoln Prep now has to bear down and try to win out in hopes of earning a playoff berth.
“We’re going to take it week by week,” Davison said. “We’ve got Homecoming next week against Plain Dealing. And then we go to Arcadia to close out the regular season. That’s a game we shouldn’t have to get fired up and ready for. So, we’re just going to take it one week at a time.”
