Preview: Lumberton Raiders vs. Little Cypress-Mauriceville Bears
The Lumberton Raiders will head out on the road to face off against the Little Cypress-Mauriceville Bears at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Both teams are coming into the match red-hot, with Lumberton sitting on five straight wins and Little Cypress-Mauriceville on four.
Lumberton put the finishing touches on their fifth blowout victory of the season on Friday. They blew past Hargrave, posting a 46-14 win at home. Lumberton pushed the score to 46-7 by the end of the third, a deficit Hargrave cut but never quite recovered from.
Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Lumberton to victory, but perhaps none more so than Lucas Powell, who rushed for 65 yards and two touchdowns, and also threw for 171 yards and a touchdown on only 14 passes. Powell was no stranger to the big play, taking off on a dash that went for 65 yards. Tyler Breeden did his part to keep the secondary busy, picking up 107 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Meanwhile, Little Cypress-Mauriceville was fully in charge on Friday, breezing past Splendora 35-7 on the road. Given Little Cypress-Mauriceville's advantage in MaxPreps' Texas football rankings (they are ranked 374th, while Splendora is ranked 901st), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Lumberton's victory was their fifth straight at home, bumping their overall record up to 5-3. That said, the team wasn't facing the toughest opposition over that stretch, as it included 1-7 Hargrave and 1-7 Splendora (their opponents had an average overall winning percentage of 31.4% over those games). As for Little Cypress-Mauriceville, their win bumped their record up to 6-3.
Everything came up roses for Lumberton against Little Cypress-Mauriceville in their previous meeting back in October of 2022 as the team secured a 41-7 victory. The rematch might be a little tougher for Lumberton since the team won't have the home-field advantage this time around. We'll see if the change in venue makes a difference.
