Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Lincoln Scoots Past Green Forest
LINCOLN SCOOTS PAST GREEN FOREST 41-14
LINCOLN — Lincoln started a different quarterback for the third time in three weeks and came out with a second straight win, celebrating Homecoming, 41-14, over Green Forest.
Witnessing his squad adapt and overcome became gratifying for Lincoln head football coach Don Harrison.
“They did a really good job. We’re really proud of them,” Harrison said.
Junior Noe Avellaneda is a guy Lincoln uses in a lot of different ways, so to his teammates having him at start quarterback wasn’t something that was crazy. Avellaneda regularly takes reps at quarterback during practice.
“He throws at practice. He does the handoffs. He might only do maybe five or six plays at quarterback in practice real time, but he does an amazing job and he did a great job here tonight controlling the game and I couldn’t be prouder of him,” Harrison said.
Former Lincoln offensive coordinator Tyler Dorton worked with Avellaneda on developing the mechanics of throwing the football. Although Dorton has been gone for three seasons now his investment into Avellaneda, who wanted to learn how to play quarterback when Dorton was head junior high coach, paid off nicely against Green Forest.
Avellaneda kept the sticks moving. Nathan Khilling recovered a bobbled sky kick and Lincoln found itself with the luxury of going on offense to start the game with a short field at the Green Forest 40. Avellaneda was 2-of-2 for 13 yards on the drive which he capped by running 13 yards for a touchdown then kicked the extrapoint for a 7-0 Lincoln lead nearly two minutes into the contest.
Green Forest tried to answer,
marching 43 yards into the red zone, but on the 14th play of the drive Lincoln senior Marcus Sturgill picked off a pass and returned the ball out to the Wolves’ 31.
From there, Avellaneda conducted an efficient 10-play, 69-yard drive to paydirt. He completed 2-of-4 passes for 20 yards and ran 4 times for 38 yards, pleasing Harrison with his performance.
“He’s got good vision and any time you’ve got a guy like him back there, that element of run, he could take off at any time; so it really puts the linebackers in a bad situation of is he going to take off, is he going to run? Then, at the last second he throws it, so again he can kind of do it all and he’s such a good player for us. We’re lucky to have him,” Harrison said.
Tailback Christian Sellers capped the drive with a 4-yard touchdown run and Lincoln enjoyed a 14-0 lead as the first quarter came to an end.
Green Forest junior Jordy Deleon returned the ensuing kickoff into Wolf territory and the visitors traveled 43 yards in five plays using a big back, Fredy Juarez Jr. (6-0, 200) to run 10 yards up the middle for a touchdown. Lincoln blocked the PAT and maintained a 14-6 lead with 10:54 to go in the first half.
Blake Arnold’s 26-yard kick return postured the offense for another 69-yard drive. Avellaneda sold plays off play-action then spotted receivers open for positive yardage. He hooked up with Arnold for 37 yards, then ran a quarterback draw 14 yards. Sellers polished off the foray into Tiger territory with a 13-yard touchdown run. Reiley Gordon blocked the PAT but Lincoln forced Green Forest into a three-and-out on the next series.
Arnold ran a punt back to the Tiger 30 and Lincoln capitalized. On third-and-3 from the 23 he took a handoff and ran the jet sweep for a touchdown. Avellaneda scored the 2-point conversion on a quarterback sneak.
As the half wore down, Avellaneda engineered an 8-play, 70-yard excursion to the end zone. Sellers ripped off a 28-yard gain followed by Avellaneda’s 6-yard keeper. The 5-8, 185-pound junior, who switched to jersey No. 2 to play quarterback, then carried out another beautiful play-action pass finding Arnold for 19 yards. On fourthand-8 he rambled 13 yards to the Tiger two keeping the drive alive before scoring on the next play as Lincoln took a commanding 34-6 advantage into intermission.
Avellaneda threw one interception in the third quarter when Gordon ran stridefor-stride with Lincoln’s top receiver Daytin Davis on a deep route. Arnold returned the favor two plays later intercepting Green Forest quarterback Hayden Alvard and running the ball back 25 yards for a defensive touchdown which coupled with Avellaneda’s PAT kick out of Sturgill’s hold activated the mercy-rule. From the 6:59 mark of the third quarter on, there was a running clock.
Alvard passed 16 yards to Gordon for a Green Forest touchdown in the fourth. The Tigers recovered an onside kick, but were flagged for holding on a run to the Wolves’ three. They went backwards and wound up in fourthand-goal from the 41 due to Arnold’s sack and Tanner Barnum’s tackle for loss.
Lincon’s Matthew Sheridan came in at tailback and ran 5 times for 45 yards to burn the clock. Lincoln prevailed 41-14. The Wolves visit Shiloh Christian in Springdale Friday. Kickoff is 7 p.m. at Champions Stadium.
LINCOLN 41, GREEN FOREST 14
Green Forest 0 6 0 8 — 14
Lincoln 14 20 7 0 — 41
FIRST QUARTER
Lincoln — Noe Avellaneda 13-yard run (Noe Avellaneda kick), 10:01. Lincoln — Christian Sellers 4-yard run (Noe Avellaneda kick), 0:36.
SECOND QUARTER
Green Forest — Fredy Juarez Jr. 10yard run (kick blocked), 10:48. Lincoln — Christian Sellers 12-yard run (kick blocked), 9:17. Lincoln — Blake Arnold 23-yard run (Noe Avellaneda run), 7:44. Lincoln — Noe Avellaneda 2-yard run (kick failed), 0:51.
THIRD QUARTER
Lincoln — Blake Arnold 25yard interception return (Noe Avellaneda kick), 7:07.
FOURTH QUARTER
Green Forest — Reiley Gordon 16-yard pass from Hayden Alvard (Gage Lowe pass from Hayden Alvard), 11:48.