Washington County Enterprise-Leader
FARMINGTON BATTLES LINCOLN ON GRIDIRON
LINCOLN DEFEATS FARMINGTON 28-7 IN REGULAR SEASON FINALE
FARMINGTON — Early this season the Lincoln Wolves identified themselves as sort of being the little brother to U. S. 62 rivals, Farmington and Prairie Grove.
On Friday, little brother Lincoln demonstrated the growth of a football program that went 2- 8 three seasons ago with a solid, 28-7, win over Farmington, the largest school in the 1-4A Conference.
“Awesome is a great way to describe it,” said Lincoln coach Brad Harris. “We finished 9-1, when you do that you’ve done some great things.”
With the victory Lincoln (9-1, 6-1) wrapped up the second seed from the 1- 4A and will host a first-round playoff game against Nashville this Friday. Meanwhile, Farmington (6-3-1), earned the third seed and travels to Ashdown, third seed out of the 4A-7.
“They were better than us and they beat us,” said Farmington coach Mike Adams. “We didn’t play as well as we could have but that was them. They had something to do with that.”
Farmington showed a lot of different looks offensively and came out with Brice Waggle at quarterback and Keaton Austin at wide receiver.
The two hooked up for a short pass early but Lincoln stuffed a running play on third down and forced a punt.
The Wolves went 80 yards in eight plays over a span of 3: 15 to capture a 7-0 lead sparked by Drew Harris’ 21-yard gain when he started left, then reversed field and ran towards the Farmington sideline before cutting back to the left. Drew Harris completed a 13-yard pass to Caleb Ayers to set up a 21-yard scoring throw to Alec Pitts.
“That was a big drive there. It was huge for us to go up 7-0 and take the lead,” Brad Harris said.
Austin took the helm on Farmington’s second series and led a 14- play, 67-yard march to the Lincoln 18 with Justice Hobbs as the featured back. After a timeout, Waggle was inserted at quar- terback and threw a touchdown pass to a wide-open Chas Turner with 1: 02 remaining in the first frame.
After an exchange of punts, Lincoln completed a pass deep in Cardinal territory but Michael Lusher recovered a fumble at the 28 to end the threat. Austin then completed a 53- yard pass to Michael Ingram, who shook off tackles before Mikey Drain brought him down at the Lincoln seven.
This time Lincoln’s defense made a goal line stand. Ayers, Drain and Tyler Cummings stuffed Hobbs for a five-yard loss, then a lob to the right corner fell incomplete. Adams called time but a third-down pass careened off the hands of a receiver and a fourth- down pass was batted down by Charles Rowe.
Lincoln failed to pick up a first- down but the Cardinals were called for roughing the kicker when Cummings was knocked down after punting.
The personal foul penalty enabled the Wolves to keep the football and moved the line of scrimmage to the Cardinal 33. On third- and- one, Cummings raced through the Cardinal defense and didn’t stop until he reached the end zone for a touchdown 45 yards later. Emilio Marrufo’s point-after gave Lincoln a 14-7 cushion.
“Tyler Cummings broke a big run. He’s always capable of doing that. We came up with the big plays when we needed to,” Brad Harris said.
Lincoln took the secondhalf kickoff and asserted themselves offensively. Lincoln overcame a holding penalty with Drew Harris finding Pitts on a left flag pattern for a 45-yard touchdown on third-and-11 to extend their lead to 21-7, which was the score at the close of the third period.
The Cardinals had chances to get back in the game. Farmington drove inside Lincoln’s 20 but the Cardinals were backed up by a delay of game and turned the ball over on downs. Chas Turner intercepted a Lincoln pass and made a big return to the Wolves’ 25-yard line but a block- in- the- back penalty hurt the Cardinals. With Waggle at quarterback, Austin wound up with the ball on a reverse but his deep throw didn’t fool the Lincoln defensive backs and went incomplete.
The Lincoln defensive line batted down a pass and on third- and-15, Pitts intercepted a Farmington pass and returned the ball 65 yards for a touchdown benefiting from blocks by his teammates on the runback.
“Our defensive backs played well. It was actually a good look for us playing Farmington, they are real similar to Nashville,” Brad Harris said. “They [Nashville] are very rich in tradition. I coached against them when I was at Arkadelphia. I am familiar with their system but I don’t know much about their individual players,”
Lincoln won 28-7 to give Brad Harris his best regular season record as a head coach, bettering his previous best of 8-1-1 at Arkadelphia. Farmington is moving up to 5A next season and the teams likely won’t play again in football in the near future.
Farmington junior center Morgan Lewis said he will miss the rivalry with his older brother, Austin, who is an assistant coach at Lincoln.
“It’s just a sibling rivalry always,” Morgan said. “Some people understand that, some don’t.”
The moment was bittersweet for Austin Lewis.
“I love my brother and I want him to do well — that’s the conflict,” Austin Lewis said. “I want them [ Farmington] to beat Ashdown. I’m just so torn. I want to watch that game film and see him do well. I coach these [Lincoln] boys to win, there’s just this crazy conflict.”
Farmington senior Jeremy Alexander reflected on what will likely be his last game at Allen Holland Field.
“I just want to thank my teammates for the support and dedication they put in. The coaches are always busting their butts for us.”
Both playoff games on Friday kick off at 7 p. m. Lincoln is home against Nashville while Farmington is on the road at Ashdown.