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 Then a penalty
pushed the Senators back five yards.
Then, SHS
quarterback Jake Shearer scampered almost 30 yards to put the ball
on the goal line and end the Railers’ chance for their first victory
of the 2014 season.
“When we lined
up (Lincoln) packed everyone in the box, so we made an adjustment,”
Springfield High Coach R.J. Luke said after Friday’s game. “We made
an audible call right there on the line…and I think that kinda
worked out in our favor.”
The game, which
had been 17-14 in Springfield’s favor, was 24-14 within two plays,
and all but over.
“Their
quarterback makes a nice run, and breaks a tackle,” Railsplitter
Head Coach Andy McDonald said. “He was a hard running kid.”
Lincoln was not
only in the game, but in control for much of Friday night’s contest.
After falling
behind 14-0 in the first quarter, the Railer defense stiffened
before half time.
With just under
10 minutes left in the second quarter; Lincoln forced a fumble, then
pressured a bad Springfield High snap for a safety.
Less than four
minutes later, Ethan Kunckle’s sack gave Lincoln great field
position.
Then Brent
Metelko scored two touchdowns in the final four minutes of the first
half to tie the game at 14-14.
“It’s not about
me scoring,” Metelko, a senior running back, said after the game. “I
want the team to do (well).”
Friday was
Metelko’s first game of 2014; he was benched for Lincoln’s first two
games of the season.
Lincoln
continued with the stingy defense into the second half.
The Railers dug
in for a goal line stand with 7:43 left in the third quarter.
Lincoln defenders stopped the Senators four straight times, in part
by deflecting two passes in the end zone.
The first play
of the fourth quarter saw Springfield’s Shearer toss an interception
to senior Cameron Cook. A few minutes later it was Lincoln’s Will
Cook who had another interception.
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But a series of
penalties in the fourth quarter pushed Lincoln back from a first and
ten on the Springfield High 20 yard line, to a fourth and 20 on the
SHS 40 yard line.
A blocked
punt and an errant Lincoln pass that landed in the hands of a
Springfield High defender then put the Railers on their heels.
And with just
over two minutes left in the game, Shearer set up the game winning
touchdown.
Coach McDonald,
who challenged his team to step-up after last week’s embarrassing
62-0 loss to Chatham Glenwood, said Metelko and others rose to the
challenge.
“We talked last
week about being more physical. We really hammered that on them,”
McDonald said.
Springfield’s
Luke said McDonald’s hammer must have driven the point home.
“All the credit
goes to (Lincoln). They come out and play us hard here,” Luke said
as his team left the field.
But moral
victories do not show up on the scorecard in the Central State
Eight.
The senior
Metelko said Lincoln wants actual victories.
“When it comes
down to it, it’s little mistakes,” Metelko said. “We got to fix the
little mistakes. We’re getting better every week. I’m, personally,
not too upset with tonight’s (game) cause we played our butts off.”
McDonald told
his team they were one tackle, and two minutes away on Friday night.
“We got a
taste. A very close taste of possibly coming off this field with a
better feeling and a win on the scoreboard” McDonald said.
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