Junior Tigers Dominate Lincoln Start To Finish

HALFTIME 35-0 LEAD BECOMES FINAL

MARK HUMPHREY ENTERPRISE-LEADER Prairie Grove running back Ethan Miller carries the football over the goal line for a 5-yard touchdown during the junior Tigers' 35-0 defeat of Lincoln on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018.
MARK HUMPHREY ENTERPRISE-LEADER Prairie Grove running back Ethan Miller carries the football over the goal line for a 5-yard touchdown during the junior Tigers' 35-0 defeat of Lincoln on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018.

LINCOLN -- Prairie Grove capitalized on field position opportunities early to dominate a junior high football game and fashion a 35-0 win over Lincoln on Thursday, Sept. 20, 2018.

Lincoln coach Reed Mendoza, who always looks himself in the mirror while evaluating game situations, accepted partial responsibility for the poor start by the junior Wolves.

"A lot of the start of the game is on me, we weren't prepared to play," Mendoza said.

In contrast, Prairie Grove hit the field running and never let up.

"I was really pleased, they came out and were focused up," said Prairie Grove coach John Elder. "They executed very well. I was really pleased, our offense executed. Defense did a great job out there swarming the ball and getting to them. We jumped on them early, and got them down a little bit and so that helped."

Prairie Grove out-played Lincoln from the opening kickoff when the junior Tigers had the wind at their backs. A good kick return postured Prairie Grove with a short field and they drove 55 yards in four plays, culiminated with Landon Semrad catching a short pass from Paytin Higgins on second-and-six, then turning the reception into a 16-yard touchdown.

Mendoza displayed bold play-calling, but the junior Wolves didn't execute on the field. A double pass caught the junior Tigers out of position but the second pass was underthrown 10 yards short of receiver Lincoln Morphis. Prairie Grove's Ethan Miller sacked junior Wolves quarterback Devonte Holmes bringing up fourth-and-21 from Lincoln's nine. A short punt bounced backwards before Caleb Matthews stopped it at the 23.

Yielding that kind of prime real estate to the junior Tigers proved disastrous for Lincoln. Elder called time-out and set up a pass with Higgins rolling right, then finding a wide-open Colin Faulk in the end zone. Higgins completed the touchdown toss despite slipping and falling while throwing. He kicked the point-after pushing Prairie Grove to a 14-0 lead with 5:42 to play in the first period.

"We threw the ball well," Elder said. "We worked on our throwing a little bit on Wednesday so it showed right there. Paytin threw the ball well and everybody caught the ball well."

Lincoln tried some more razzle-dazzle by throwing a lateral across the field on the ensuing kickoff. The trick play resulted in a long runback across the 45, but was all for nought because the lateral was an illegal forward pass. Lincoln began at its own 14 and went backwards with consecutive 5-yard penalties for 10-men in the huddle and illegal procedure putting the ball at the junior Wolves' four. Lincoln punted with the line of scrimmage at the seven with a kick held up by the wind and being downed at the five, a net loss of two yards.

Miller scored on the next play for Prairie Grove, which opened up a 21-0 lead at the 3:45 mark of the first quarter. The game was never in doubt beyond that juncture. On the next series, Lincoln drove 41 yards before losing the ball on downs in junior Tiger territory at the 38.

The junior Tigers sprang a pair of long touchdown runs on a wingback reverse to assume a commanding 35-0 lead at intermission. The first came on fourth-and-two at Lincoln's 37 with Landron Semrad running for a score. Lincoln went three-and-out on its next series.

After a punt, Prairie Grove marched 72 yards in six plays highlighted by another wingback reverse, this one of 50 yards by Faulk, who lined up on the left side of the formation then took a handoff running to his right and was never stopped.

"They weren't quite ready for that," Elder said. "It kind of went pretty big right there. The guys ran it well."

On a positive note, Mendoza observed, "Our boys never quit, they kept playing."

Lincoln moved the ball 55 yards on the opening drive of the third quarter, but couldn't avoid the shutout and lost 35-0 to even the junior Wolves' record at 2-2.

Sports on 11/14/2018