The Plain Dealing Lions fell to Lincoln Prep 22-12 Friday night at Eddie G. Robinson Stadium in Grambling.
Plain Dealing dropped to 3-3 overall. Lincoln Prep improved to 2-4. Lincoln Prep replaced the old Grambling Lab school. Lincoln Prep is in District 1-1A but ineligible for championship honors this season because it’s a first-year school.
Despite suffering injuries to two key players in the first half, Plain Dealing had a chance to pull out the victory.
The Lions faced a third-and-goal at the 5 in the fourth quarter trailing just 14-12. But Lincoln Prep picked off a pass and returned it 40 yards. They eventually scored and got a two-point conversion for the final margin.
Plain Dealing lost two-way starters Derreon Washington (stinger) and Jarvis Johnson (knee) to injuries in the first quarter. Washington is a tight end and linebacker. Johnson is a wingback and linebacker.
“We had to put some young kids, freshmen and sophomores, in those spots,” Plain Dealing coach James Thurman said. “They just didn’t hold up. Offensively, we had too many mistakes.”
Thurman said Lincoln Prep’s size was a factor.
“Lincoln Prep was pretty big up front,” he said. “They came right at us all night. They had a big fullback. I think their line averaged about 270 or 280 across the board. They kept the ball a good portion of the time. We just couldn’t stop them.
“Maybe we went in a little overconfident or whatever. We just made a lot of mistakes. We’re either going to clean them up and get better or we’re not and we’re not going to progress much.”
Freshman Artavious Washington-Carper started at quarterback and played a full game there for the first time this season.
“He played well for his first time being a full-time starter,” Thurman said. “He’s just got a lot of growing up to do. You’re a freshman like that thrown into the fire.”
Meiko Ford and Shavolyea McKinney scored rushing touchdowns for Plain Dealing.
The Lions visit Ringgold (2-4), a 34-12 loser to Arcadia on Friday, this Thursday. Thurman said it’s basically gut-check time for his team.
“I told them they have two choices,” he said. “We can lay on this loss and give up now or they can fight to get better and try to win out. That’s the choice they’re going to have to make. We’ve got practice at 9 o’clock Monday on a day off and I told ‘em show up or don’t show up next Thursday at our game. We may be taking 11 kids over to Ringgold. We’ll see who shows up and who wants to play football for Plain Dealing.”
— Russell Hedges, rhedges@bossierpress.com
