Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Stolen Momentum
LINCOLN — A seesaw battle at Huntsville Oct. 14 went down to the wire with Lincoln eventually losing, 36-34, as the game swung towards the Eagles during a crucial third quarter.
Lincoln (2-5, 1-3 4A-1) went scoreless during the third period with a score erased by an ominous penalty flag that Wolves’ head coach Don Harrison disputed.
“We had a 51-yard touchdown called back,” Harrison said. “It was a bad call by the official. They (Huntsville) just stole all momentum. We fought to the end. We just made too many mistakes.”
Huntsville (3-4, 2-2) took their first lead of the night with 4:36 to go in third when sophomore Sean McCone scored on a quarterback keeper, then passed to classmate Tyler Welch for a 2-point conversion pushing Huntsville ahead, 22-20. In a wild fourth quarter, Huntsville got a touchdown from Jaron Evans, who caught a 26-yard pass from McCone. The Eagles’ conversion failed, but they held a 28-20 advantage. Huntsville kicked off, but not very deep, enabling Lincoln to start from their own 40. The Wolves engineered a 60-yard drive to stay in the game. Lincoln senior quarterback Harrison Swayne (16 of 27 passing for 223 yards and 2 touchdowns) hooked up with one of his favorite targets, Braden Umberson, for 15 yards setting up Jacob Anderson’s 8-yard touchdown run to pull the Wolves within, 26- 28, with 3: 44 remaining, but their 2-point conversion attempt failed.
Lincoln had all three of their timeouts available, but Huntsville was not content to sit on their lead, which they extended to 10 points, at 36-26, with 1:48 to go when Evans (18 rushes, 122 yards, 2 touchdowns) got away from the Wolves’ defense and took a 35-yard run to the end zone. McCone ran in the 2-point conversion, but Lincoln didn’t give up. Swayne came back with a 70-yard touchdown bomb to Umberson (9 receptions for 152 yards), then threw to senior Brent Crews to add a 2-point conversion with 1:30 to play. That turned out to be the high-water mark because the Wolves couldn’t come up with an onside kick and Huntsville ran out the clock.
Lincoln built an early 14-0 first quarter lead with Caleb Hale scoring on a 7-yard pass from Swayne. Jason Swain kicked the extra-point and soon added another P.A.T. when Swayne returned an interception 50 yards for a touchdown. The Eagles battled back with a rushing touchdown by Evans in the second quarter, but Lincoln forged a 20-6 lead with 3:37 remaining in the half.
One of those costly mistakes, Harrison was referring to came late in the second quarter when Eagle linebacker Lukas Rayl forced a Wolf fumble which he recovered in the end zone for a touchdown. Welch scored a 2-point conversion to pull the Eagles within six, at 20-14, at halftime. For the Wolves, Swayne had 7 rushes for 59 yards and a touchdown. Caleb Lloyd had 11 carries for 46 yards. As a team Lincoln rushed for 124 yards on 22 carries averaging 5.6-yards-per-rush. Brent Crews caught 3 passes for 39 yards. Dalton Lee and Lloyd each caught 2 passes for 16 yards. Lincoln had 347 yards of total offense.