Thursday battle of Lincoln Parish
Lincoln Prep’s D’Tavion Wright (6) and Cedar Creek’s James Myers (3), the top offensive weapons for their respective teams, will be featured in Thursday’s matchup between the district rivals. Photos by Josh McDaniel and Darrell James
A new district pairing won’t keep Lincoln Prep and Cedar Creek from facing off this year.
Despite moving districts from 2-1A to 1-1A in the offseason, Lincoln Parish rivals Lincoln Prep (4-3, 2-2 district) and Cedar Creek ( 1- 6, 1- 2 district) will continue their series on Thursday at Panther Field in Grambling, with both teams coming off tough losses last week in their respective home contests. For Creek, it was a 52-8 loss to Haynesville to keep the Cougars winless at home. For Prep, it was a 24-20 loss to Glenbrook as the Panthers were unable to overcome a 24-0 halftime deficit.
But despite the losses, both squads have shown clear improvement in recent weeks thanks to undeniable athleticism from top seniors.
The Cedar Creek offense has taken big steps forward in October after a rocky September, with 92 total points for 776 yards of offense (258.6 yards per game) while rushing for 685 rushing yards (228 yards per game) at 5.11 yards per carry over the last three games.
Compare that to four games in September — 64 points, 514 total yards, and 422 rushing yards (105.5 yards per game) — and head coach William Parkerson is proud of his young team for staying the course and steadily improving, even if wins aren’t coming just yet.
He knows it would be easy for a young team like Creek to ride the wave of emotions that come with blowing out Plain Dealing 64-0, only to come back and lose by 44 to Haynesville, and feel like progress isn’t working. But ahead of Thursday’s local rivalry game, he hasn’t seen his Cougars change their work ethic.
“Flush it and move on. Haynesville is a really good team, and they played like it. You just gotta flush it and move on,” Parkerson said. “It’s about how we respond this week. The focus is on beating Lincoln Prep and going 1-0 this week. The kids are bought in. They’re working. We’re just focused on getting a win this week and then go from there.”
A bright spot for Creek in October, as well as the season at large, has been senior James Myers, who’s emerged as the clear-cut weapon for the Cougars out of the backfield. This month, Myers has a rushing score in three straight games with 18 carries for 192 yards — 10.6 yards per tote.
Lincoln Prep head coach Glen Hall believes the Panthers’ best chance of winning starts with containing Myers and the base run plays Creek wants to work from.
“The main thing is we have to stop the dive. If it’s not the dive, they’ll go to the wing toss, and then if not toss, they’ll go wing toss counter inside. We’ve had our problems with that in the past. But we have to stop the dive,” Hall said. “ I think defensively, when we dig our heels in, we’re hard to push around. When we started playing to our potential against Glenbrook, we really didn’t give up much.
“They’re going to run it and want to move the clock and pick up first downs and move down the field slowly. We want to get them backed up to second and long and third and long, and then we can possibly make some plays and speed them up.”
But as good as Myers has been for the Cougars, Lincoln Prep senior D’Tavion Wright is making a strong case that he is the top running back in the district with 767 yards, 9 rushing touchdowns, 11 total touchdowns, and four 100- plus yard games. Averaging 7.82 yards per carry, Wright has put up over 100 yards in back-to-back contests, most recently 111 yards and a score against Glenbrook.
Parkerson knows that if Creek doesn’t contain Wright, along with Prep’s other dynamic tailbacks Jaylin Huntley and Verlanski Glosson, it’s going to be a long night for his team.
“He’s a physical runner and has really good speed. He’s a physical runner, really good in space,” Parkerson said of Wright. “They’ve got a big offensive line and if they get your hands on you, they’ve got the ability to move you around. Their backfield has really good speed. We’ll have to be sharp in our tackling and taking good angles and wrapping up.”
Through seven games, Cedar Creek has given up 21 rushing touchdowns in seven games and 1,353 total rushing yards (193.3 per game) at 7.82 yards per carry.
Last week, Glenbrook was able to limit Prep’s offensive touches in the first half by kicking and recovering three onside kicks — holding the Panthers to 10 plays in the first 24 minutes. Hall doesn’t expect Creek to come up with the same game plan but wants his team to stay sharp for any tricks the Cougars might roll out.
“ You won’t find many kickers like Glenbrook’s kid who’s that strong and can get the bounces that he did. I think I’ve seen Cedar Creek onside kick once this year on film, so it’s really not going to be like last week,” Hall said. “But we can’t have the same mistakes that we had. We can’t shoot ourselves in the foot and expect to win.”
Cedar Creek has not lost to Lincoln Prep since Oct. 9, 2014, and has outscored the Panthers 189-14 since then over the last four meetings. Lincoln Prep hosts Cedar Creek on Thursday at 7 p.m. at Panther Field in Grambling.
