French Camp led homestanding Sebastopol 42-0 – after the first quarter — during their region contest last Friday night. The Panthers went on to win 56-14 and it could have been much worse, leading 56-0 at the half.
French Camp coach Nathan Wright said it was the most points one of his teams has ever scored in a quarter. “That’s hard to do even if you’re playing a junior high team. We fumbled one in the end zone they recovered, so it could have been 49.
”It was unbelievable. It was as if we couldn’t do anything wrong.”
It did not take French Camp long to assert its dominance. Zach Gilmer returned the opening kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown and Bradley McGlothin added the first of his eight straight extra points for a quick 7-0 lead.
Then the floodgates opened.
In rapid succession the Panthers scored on a seven-yard run by Calvin Johnson, a three-yard run by Phillip Caradine, a 35-yard interception return by Gilmer, a 70-yard run by Gilmer and a 50-yard Johnson to Clayton Leathers pass, making it 42-0 after the first 12 minutes.
Caradine added second quarter touchdowns on an 11-yard run and a 60-yard fumble return.
With starters relaxing on the bench, Sebastopol scored second half TDs on runs by Jacob Williams and Jahiem Johnson.
French Camp ran only 14 offensive plays and had 212 yards of offense. Johnson was three for three passing for 83 yards. Gilmer was the leading ball carrier with five for 112 yards. He had 234 all purpose yards.
Coelman MacKenzie was the Panthers’ leading tackler with 10.
Johnson played quarterback in place of Holman Edwards, who sat out the game. “I wanted to rest him. He was pretty beat up,” Wright said. “I told him if we needed him I would bring him in.”
It was the third straight one-sided win for French Camp by a combined score of 139-40. The Panthers are 6-4 overall and 5-2 in Region 3-1A.
“We’re playing our best football. We’re doing a lot of things right,” Wright said. “The competition level has been down, but we’re doing things better than we have all year. I’m real pleased with where we are right now.”
Four-time defending champion Nanih Waiya and Noxapater are both 7-0 in region play and will meet Friday at Noxapater to determine the region champion and first and second seeds in the region. French Camp and Leake County are both 5-2 and will meet Friday at Walnut Grove to determine third and fourth.
The top four teams make the 1A playoffs, with opening round games against teams from Region 4. First and second play at home and third and fourth on the road. If French Camp wins, the Panthers will travel to Stringer, but a loss will send them to Lumberton.
Leake County is 7-2, the only losses being to Nanih Waiya and Noxapater. Offensively, the Gators are led by 1,000-yard runner Jaleen Morgan.
“They have been solid all year,” Wright said. “They have a lot of athletes and they can run. That’s what we are expecting, a lot of speed. We will have to do our best to put everybody in the right positions, to box them in and make plays.”
When the teams met last year, French Camp won a shootout 56-44. The game produced 1,055 yards of offense, 538 for French Camp and 517 for Leake County. Edwards and Morgan both had big games. Edwards totaled 278 yards running and passing and Morgan ran for 161.
