MONROE — The Lumberton football team got off to a rough start in Friday’s game at Monroe, and it didn’t get any better over the next couple of hours for the Pirates in a 43-3 nonconference road loss.
“We fumbled the opening kickoff and it just went downhill from there,” Lumberton coach Josh Sheridan said. “We were able to run the ball, move the ball a lot, just struggled in other areas. I’m proud of the offensive line, running backs, how they played. We had some great drives, we’ve just got to learn how to finish them.”
After the fumble to start the game, Monroe (3-2) started at the Pirates’ 10-yard line and quickly scored a rushing touchdown. The Redhawks then scored on a pick-six with 8:51 left in the first quarter for a 14-0 lead.
“We have to have better decision making as far as the pass game, I would say,” Sheridan said. “That results in another way of shooting ourselves in the foot.”
After Monroe drove down the field, Lumberton (1-4) forced a fumble and recovered inside the 5, but a negative rushing play led to a safety for Monroe for a 16-0 lead, which remained the score at the end of the first quarter.
A botched punt for the Pirates led to another Monroe touchdown for a 23-0 lead. John Dineant scored the Pirates’ only points of the night with a short field goal before Monroe capped the first-half scoring with an 80-yard touchdown and led 29-3 at the intermission.
Monroe’s first second-half drive ended with an interception by Lumberton’s Elijah Campbell; the Pirates punted before Monroe scored on a 55-yard touchdown pass for a 36-3 lead. The Redhawks added another long touchdown run before the end of the period to lead 43-3 going to the fourth.
Lumberton opens Tri-County Conference play next week at home against Cape Fear.
“The good thing about it, we’ve got school off on Monday so we’ll regroup Monday afternoon,” Sheridan said. “We haven’t played in front of our home crowd in two weeks so it feels good to come back and play in front of the community, that should give us an extra boost. I think they’ll be fine once we stop doing self-inflicted things. Everything (Monroe) showed us we’d seen on film. … We just shot ourselves in the foot; it was nothing they did in a sense.”