The East Marion Eagles looked highly impressive through two quarters of jamboree action at Lumberton Aug. 19, outscoring the Panthers 26-0 (despite having a pair of touchdowns called back) to build momentum entering Friday's regular season opener against West Marion.
Head coach Jerry Fletcher, who has only been with the program since late June, said he didn't expect everything to come together right off the bat, and he still expects there to be issues to overcome despite how smoothly things seemed to go in the jamboree. But he was ultimately impressed with what he saw and looks forward to putting his team between the lines for an official game on Friday.
"I was just hoping to see how our players would respond to competing against another team," Fletcher said of the jamboree. "We haven't been working together for a really long time, but we've been working really hard, and it was time to find out what things would look like in live action. I was very pleased with how we executed, especially offensively. We did pretty well defensively but still have a few kinks to work out on that side of the ball. All in all, it was about as good of a result as we could've hoped for."
After forcing a three-and-out on Lumberton's opening drive, the Eagles' offense started off strong with a score on their first trip down the field. LJ Andrews connected with Caden Mingo on a 24-yard pass to set up a 1-yard quarterback sneak into the end zone by Andrews for the touchdown.
A fumble recovery on Lumberton's following drive allowed the Eagles' offense to retake the field in Panthers' territory.
Just three plays into the drive, Andrews connected with Chris Magee on a wheel route for a 26-yard touchdown strike to double East Marion's advantage.
Starting their next drive backed up inside their own 10-yard line, the Eagles flipped the field with a 55-yard pass from Andrews to Ka'Ron Weary. Several snaps later, senior running back Cory Johnson found a hole up the middle and darted into the end zone for a 12-yard touchdown run.
The point after attempt was unsuccessful, leaving East Marion with a 20-0 lead midway through the second quarter.
After forcing another Lumberton punt, Andrews retook the field and made quick work in his final scoring drive, connecting with Weary on an 88-yard screen pass for the Eagles' final score of the night in a 26-0 route of the Panthers.
The final score wasn't Fletcher's focal point for the evening, however. More so than getting a win in a scrimmage that doesn't count toward the overall record, he wanted to see that his players were prepared to execute their game plan without any miscommunication or costly mistakes. The Eagles seemed to achieve that, too, leaving Fletcher and his staff optimistic about what the group could be able to accomplish from this point forward.
"For us, it wasn't about the end result in this one. It was more about showing that we could go about our business, communicate well and respond to what other teams might do on the field, and I thought we did a pretty nice job of that considering it was our first time out there together," Fletcher said.
"We have T-shirts that say 'Outwork the work,' and that's how we want to approach everything we do, whether it's practice, jamboree games or official games. I thought we did that against a good Lumberton team, and now we have to focus on turning around and doing the same thing this Friday when we take the field for a real game against West Marion."
