LUMBERTON — Purnell Swett football coach Jon Sherman and his team got their first taste of beating Lumberton in high school football last week, and there is still hunger there to defeat their rivals again this year.
Hunger goes further than attempting to beat their rivals, but also to make a final push for a possible playoff berth.
“The stakes are high. We have three wins and have to win at least two more,” Sherman said of his team’s playoff possibilities. “When I was hired, one of the first things I was told was we have to beat Lumberton. Those guys look at it in the same way and so do the kids at Lumberton.”
The Rams (3-5, 1-4 SAC) make the 18-mile trek to Lumberton (1-8, 0-5 SAC) on Friday to rekindle the rivalry among two teams in the bottom half of the league. Purnell Swett won its first conference game of the season last week against Hoke, while Lumberton has had close calls all season, and hasn’t won a game since Sept. 7 at West Brunswick.
“We haven’t played well. We have been through a lot, and we just keep working hard,” Lumberton coach Kelly Williamson said. “Everyone we’ve played has been stronger, faster and meaner than us. We’ve got to solve those problems. We will get better.
“To build something, you’ve got to evaluate where you are, and I’ve done that this year. We’ve just got to work harder.”
This matchup features two of the top athletes on the gridiron in the region with Purnell Swett’s Chandler Brayboy and Lumberton’s Braylan Grice both expected to take minimal snaps off in the contest playing both sides of the ball.
Brayboy accounted for three touchdowns last week against the Bucks and before then had returned the last two opening kickoffs back for touchdowns.
“Did he make the Shrine Bowl,” Williamson asked earlier this week of Brayboy. “He should have. What a heck of a player. He’s one of the best players in the conference if you ask me. The kid does everything.”
Sherman expects Brayboy and the other upperclassmen that are hitting their stride to carry a burden of the load to combat the athletes they will line up against.
“They’ve got excellent receivers on the outside and that’s a scary thought. They killed us last year,” Sherman said. “We’ve made an emphasis to cover the outside.”
Through all the ups and downs that have happened the last three weeks with Grice, the senior is back on the team and will be an important part of the Pirates’ operation, if he sees the field. Last week against Scotland, he was on the sidelines but did not play. Freshman Jadarian Chatman has taken over quarterback duties in his absence.
“With No. 1 (Grice) in the game, he’s a threat at any second,” Sherman said. “With the other young guy that we saw in on film, he has a good arm and runs the offense well. As a coach you have to prepare for both.”
This game marks the end of a tough stretch for the Pirates after taking on the top teams in the Sandhills Athletic Conference as it closes the season with games against Purnell Swett and Hoke, who combined have three wins and one league victory.
“I’m just concentrating on our kids and trying to get them better,” Williamson said. “Purnell has got a good football team with some players. We are a little banged up.”
Fairmont at South Robeson
After winning two of their last three games, the Golden Tornadoes hit the road to take on a South Robeson team that is struggling to close out the season. Jordan Waters continued to take front and center of the Robeson County Heisman discussion with his three-touchdown performance against East Columbus on Monday and guides Fairmont into this meeting having won the last 14 meetings between the teams.
The last win for South Robeson in the series came in 2003.
Fairmont will have to work to slow down the rushing attack from South Robeson that gives the Golden Tornadoes a similar look to what they faced off with on Monday. Junior Tyler Locklear accounted for both touchdowns for the Mustangs last week in a 49-14 loss at East Bladen.
