BY DANIEL SCHMIDT
THE LAFAYETTE SUN
LANETT — After riding a seven-game winning streak into last Friday’s game against Reeltown High School, Lanett High School looked to lock up its second consecutive region championship heading into the postseason.
Instead, the No. 2 Rebels (9-0, 7-0) flipped the script and certified their state title contender status by steamrolling the Panthers (7-3, 6-1) 50-6 at Morgan-Washburn Stadium on Oct. 23.
Reeltown’s Alijah Woods ran for 382 yards and five touchdowns on 25 carries in a game that ultimately decided the Class 2A Region 4 championship.
Lanett head coach R.J. McDonald didn’t look far to assign blame after Friday night, saying that he would look at what he could improve himself.
“We didn’t come out and execute well,” McDonald said. “Honestly, we didn’t prepare well, and that’s on me as a head football coach. I’ve got to be better leading the guys in that aspect.”
The Panthers beat Reeltown twice last season: 20-19 in the regular season and 35-19 in the Class 2A semifinals.
This time, a roster that McDonald said now leans heavily on underclassmen struggled in its first game of this magnitude.
“We’re playing so many young guys and they haven’t been in this spot,” McDonald said. “They haven’t been in the atmosphere like this or played in a big game like this.”
Lanett had its chances early. Trailing 15-0 late in the first quarter, P.J. Stiggers broke a 65-yard TD run. However, Reeltown blocked the extra point, and Woods answered with a 57-yard score just two plays later.
From there, only several glimmers of hope and a handful of bright spots punched through what was an otherwise frustrating evening.
Stiggers finished with 135 yards and the TD on 26 carries as the Panthers gained 70 yards on his other 25 attempts outside of the one long run.
The performance put Stiggers just 36 yards shy of tallying 2,000 rushing yards in the regular season. After 10 games, the freshman phenom has gained 1,964 yards and 24 TDs on just 192 total carries.
Field position was there, too. Kickoff returns by Treshun Frazier and Jayden Drake set Lanett up at the Reeltown 21 and 48 yard lines, respectively, and another drive began at the Reeltown 34 yard line. None produced points.
Lanett was stopped on downs four times and finished with 135 total yards of offense once other negative plays in the rushing attack were factored in. Javeion Washington completed 3 of 11 passes for 2 yards with an interception.
Defensively, Lanett also lost contain on several of Woods’ long runs. McDonald said the banged-up roster played a part, but so did assignments.
“Sometimes it was keys and doing our job,” McDonald said. “We kind of get lost in a couple things. A lot of that stuff is young-guy mistakes.”
Woods scored from 57, 70, 16 and 79 yards. Each of his TDs came on a drive of two plays or fewer. As a result, Reeltown led 29-6 at halftime and triggered the running clock with a TD late in the third quarter.
While Lanett made plenty of mistakes, Reeltown wasn’t clean, either. The Rebels were flagged at least 11 times for 75 yards, and penalties stalled two of their first-half drives.
Despite the difficulties on the defensive side of the ball, several Lanett defenders had big nights.
Reeltown coach Matt Johnson praised the Panthers, saying that their defensive line initially presented his offense with several problems it needed to solve.
Johnson added that he considers McDonald a friend in the profession.
“They’ve got a really good ball club,” Johnson said. “Coach McDonald does a phenomenal job.”
Lanett now has a bye week before the playoffs, and McDonald said it comes at the right time.
“We’ve got to get healthy,” McDonald said. “We’re really, really banged up right now… We were limping into it.”
The Panthers will host a first-round playoff game Nov. 6 at 7 p.m., with the opponent yet to be determined. However, current standings and region pairings suggest the most probable opponent would be Clarke County High School (6-3).
McDonald called playing at home in front of a friendly crowd to open the postseason a big deal for a young team.
“The good thing is we’re still playing football, and a lot of teams won’t be,” McDonald said. “It wasn’t a great start to the year, but we got to continue to finish well.”
