Football Preview: Lumberton Panthers vs. Sacred Heart Crusaders
Lumberton is 7-1 against Sacred Heart since September of 2014, and they'll have a chance to extend that success on Friday. The Lumberton Panthers will venture away from home to square off against the Sacred Heart Crusaders at 7:00 p.m. The two teams are sauntering into the matchup backed by comfortable wins in their prior games.
Lumberton is headed in fresh off scoring the most points they have all season. They breezed by East Marion at home to the tune of 72-3 on Friday. Winning may never get old, but the Panthers sure are getting used to it with their third in a row.
Meanwhile, after only seven points in their last match, Sacred Heart made sure to put some points up on the board against Salem on Friday. Sacred Heart took their matchup on the road with ease, bagging a 50-14 win over Salem. Considering the Crusaders have won five games by more than 19 points this season, Friday's blowout was nothing new.
It was another big night for Kyron Murphy, who threw for 179 yards and three touchdowns while completing 85.7% of his passes, and also rushed for 61 yards on only five carries. That's the most rushing yards he has posted since back in November of 2023. Another player making a difference was Gary Duckworth, who picked up 94 receiving yards and a touchdown.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given the score, Sacred Heart was unstoppable on the ground and finished the game with 208 rushing yards. That strong performance was nothing new for the team: they've now rushed for at least 183 rushing yards in nine consecutive contests dating back to last season.
Sacred Heart's defense made their presence known, laying out the QB 6.5 times. Leading the way was Jameson Phillips with three sacks.
Lumberton has been performing well recently as they've won four of their last five matches, which provided a nice bump to their 5-2 record this season. As for Sacred Heart, their victory bumped their record up to 6-1.
Lumberton came up short against Sacred Heart in their previous matchup back in October of 2023, falling 17-7. Can Lumberton avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
