Junior Tigers Run Table By Edging Lincoln 14-13

Prairie Grove edged Lincoln, 14-13, in a battle that went down to the wire Thursday to win the junior high conference championship.

In the first quarter, Lincoln’s defense forced a Prairie Grove to turn the ball over on downs when Levi Wright stopped a run at the junior Wolves’ 41. Despite prime field position, Lincoln couldn’t move the ball and suffered a 2-yard loss on a run followed by a 10-yard loss on a sack and had to punt.

The junior Wolves gained 46 yards in field position on the punt after a block-inback penalty was marked off against Prairie Grove. The junior Tigers drove 75 yards in 8 plays aided by Miles Castleman’s 45-yard pass completion on third-and-9. Prairie Grove fullback Foster Layman ran behind left guard to score a 1-yard touchdown run on the second play of the second quarter. Paytin Higgins kicked the extra-point giving Prairie Grove a 7-0 lead.

On the ensuing possession, Lincoln took over at their own 32 following Daytin Davis’ kickoff return. On first down, Cade Redfern ran left, then pulled up and threw a halfback option pass. A man was open downfield, but the ball fell incomplete. Prairie Grove had dodged a bullet and coach John Elder knew it. He got on his secondary for giving up on the play and letting the receiver go.

Still, Lincoln converted third-and-six with quarterback Tyler Brewer (8 of 14, 136 yards, 1 touchdown) throwing complete to Levi Wright, who had a monster game with 5 catches for 102 yards. Lincoln reached the junior Tiger 21, but lost a fumble on the exchange with Kennan Davis recovering for Prairie Grove.

Lincoln’s defense held and forced a punt that was not returned putting the junior Wolves starting position at their own 20 with 2:15 to go in the first half. They marched 80 yards in nine plays capped by Noe Avellenada’s 15-yard touchdown run around right end when the junior Tigers were caught expecting a pass. A 48-yard completion from Brewer to Wright set up the touchdown that came with 20.2 seconds showing on the second quarter clock. Avellenada booted the point-after to tie the game, at 7-7, going into halftime.

Lincoln took the second half kickoff and drove 35 yards to the Prairie Grove 21, but Brewer was sacked on thirdand-one when a snap in the shotgun was low and David Hall tackled him for an 8-yard loss. On fourth-and-nine, Brewer had a man open, but the receiver couldn’t make a catch and the ball turned over on downs.

Prairie Grove needed just three plays to cover 71 yards for the go-ahead touchdown. Castleman ran 15 yards for a first down and Layman broke through the middle eluding tacklers on his way to a 53-yard touchdown run. Higgins kicked his second P.A.T. and the junior Tigers led 14-13 with 2:28 remaining in the third quarter.

Daytin Davis, who missed last year’s game against Prairie Grove with an injury, again set up Lincoln with excellent field position with a kick return inside junior Tiger territory to the 45. Wright’s 19-yard reception on third-and-13 kept the drive alive. Lincoln converted on third-and-one with Avellenada taking a direct snap and running for two yards up the middle. The junior Wolves moved the chains on yet another third down with Daytin Davis catching a quick slant pass for 6 yards. Brewer tossed to Avellenada on a flare pass that he took 4 yards for a touchdown.

Kennan Davis broke through the line and blocked the extra-point kick, keeping Prairie Grove ahead, 14-13, with 6:13 to play in the fourth. Disdaining an onside kick, Lincoln kicked the ball deep and the strategy looked favorable when the return man fumbled and fell on the ball at the junior Tiger 17.

The junior Tigers added more drama when they failed to heed Elder’s instructions. The plan was to run the playclock down to one second, call time-out, then punt on fourth-and-one from the 26, but the junior Tigers broke the huddle and came up to the line of scrimmage with Elder yelling, “Stay in the huddle, stay in the huddle.”

They executed with tight end Josh Weber taking a handoff and running 3 yards for a first down. Then moved the ball to Lincoln’s six with 1:09 left. Lincoln was out of time-outs and planned to let Prairie Grove score, but the junior Tigers heard them saying, “Let him go, let him go,” and informed Elder after he called time-out facing third-and-one.

“Don’t score,” Elder instructed. “Get a first down, fall down with it, take a knee.”

Lincoln stuffed a run for a 2-yard loss and Elder was all over his offense.

“You got to get a first down. Do you understand me?” Elder said.

Prairie Grove at last paid heed to their coach because when Castleman broke the line of scrimmage with a path into the end zone he wisely fell down at the one which allowed Prairie Grove to run out the clock preserving a 14-13 win and outright junior high conference championship.

Elder said special teams plays figure prominently in the game calling Kennan Davis’ block that prevented Lincoln from tying the game “huge.”

“That blocked extra-point by Kennan Davis was huge,” Elder said. “Special teams were huge. He got the big block on that one.”

“They had some good runs on us on special teams. We had that mental error on the punting team. That was wild there.”

Elder gave a nod to Weber for picking up the first down on the miscue.

“That was a heads-up play by him doing that,” Elder said.