The West Lowndes football team is coming off its second bye week of the year, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
The toll of soreness and the regular bumps and bruises comes with a higher price in the ranks of 1A football and the Panthers used their time off last week to get healthy and work on a few kinks they’ve hit this season after a 2-3 start in their nonconference slate. Feeling much more refreshed, today brings the beginning of Region 3-1A play for West Lowndes, which plays host to the Vardaman Rams at 7 p.m. to kickoff the homecoming festivities and the most important stretch of the season.
“Everybody should be able to play,” head coach Anthony King said. “Everbody should be full go for (tonight’s) game – district play. Really, it’s a brand-new season.”
For the first time Sept. 12, the Panthers will have an opportunity to capture back-to-back wins. They are coming off a 40-14 victory over Mantachie in which they produced their best offensive showing of the year so far behind a heavy dose of rushing. Running backs Kylan Ellis and Jakylen Lucious both ran in two touchdowns, and quarterback Kadon Burton carried in one score.
“Even though we lost three of those five games, we were able to run the ball pretty much on everybody we played, bigger schools, we just wore them down. It’s just that penalties and turnovers have been killing us,” King said. “We’re just trying to correct those and get better from there.”
They rely on running the ball, but the Panthers are not trying to not be one-sided on offense. They’ve been focusing on improving their passing game as well.
“(We’re) trying to get better,” King said. “(Our) quarterback is young, a sophomore, our receivers are young. It just takes time, you know. When you have so much success on the ground you control the clock. We have various (passing) attempts this year, and half of our touchdowns have been passing touchdowns. We’d like to throw it more and that’s all on me just being more balanced, just getting more passing game into the running game, and I know I have to because (when) the playoffs start you only go far when you are capable of both.”
The road to the postseason begins today against Vardaman, which also struggled in its nonconference games and finished with a 2-5 record. The Rams are coming off a 35-21 loss to Hamilton last week and bring in an offense that averages 19.8 points a game. Defensively, Vardaman gives up 30.8 points per contest. The Panthers, though, are not fooled by their numbers, not when they have a player like Braylen Bedford on their roster. Bedford is a four-star recruit and No. 3 overall prospect in Mississippi’s 2028 recruiting class, according to 247Sports. He’s listed as a cornerback, but King said the Rams use him everywhere they can.
“He’s an athlete playing quarterback,” King said. “He plays everything, he’s a safety for them, a linebacker, a quarterback, a running back and receiver. He’s an athlete. He’s physical, he’s fast and strong. To be a sophomore, he’s very talented. I can see why he’s got the ranking he has. He’s very talented.”
It’s not just Bedford the Panthers have to pay attention to. King credited their offensive line as a good unit that allows Vardaman to run the ball and control the clock, similar to their own playstyle.
“It should be a fast game,” he said. “They are going to run it, we want to run it. We want to get our passing in. They’re real big up front and physical, so we just have to match their intensity and be physical also.”
The Panthers have their own version of Bedford, minus the quarterback play, in Lucious, who has been one of their biggest producers on the ground as their leading rusher and leading tackler on defense.
“He’s one of our leaders. He’s the heart and soul of the team,” King said of Lucious. “… we depend on him a whole lot.”
King said the Rams should expect to see a lot of rushing, some passing and a whole lot of heart from the Panthers, who are looking for the first win over Vardaman since 2022.
“I’m excited to see how this team is going to respond to district play. I hate that it’s homecoming going into district play, but we didn’t have any other time to get it in because next week is senior night,” he said.
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