Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Lincoln Bids Farewell To Shiloh Christian
WOLVES PREPARE FOR GENTRY
SPRINGDALE — Lincoln (5-3, 2-3) bid farewell to taking on 4A-1 league leader Shiloh Christian (8-0, 5-0) at Champions Stadium Friday.
The Wolves revert to 3A status next season and won’t be tangling with the Saints any time soon after suffering a 49-7 loss.
The Saints set out to run up the score as soon as possible recovering an onside kick after taking a 6-0 lead on Truitt Tollett’s 10-yard run 2:09 into the game.
Lincoln, however, dared to postpone that by forcing a fumble in the red zone, capitalizing upon the turnover and marching the other way.
Noe Avellaneda, the third player to start at quarterback for Lincoln this season, took his second straight start as a signal-caller and led the Wolves on a first quarter touchdown drive capped by his 25-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Daytin Davis. Davis beat double coverage on the route with a spectacular over-the-shoulder reception.
Unfortunately for the Wolves the rest of the scoring belonged to Shiloh Christian, which was looking for points any way they could get them.
The Saints went for 2-points on 4 of their 7 touchdowns including 3-of-4 attempts during a 30-point second quarter.
Shiloh quarterback Eli Reece connected with wide receiver Tollett for 3 touchdowns and a 2-point conversion. The Saints tacked on a meaningless touchdown in the fourth with backup quarterback Caleb Anderson completing a short screen pass to Ben Baker, who went 60 yards on the play.
Circle The Wagons
The Saints put a lot of pressure on Avellaneda when Lincoln tried to pass.
Lincoln junior lineman Kris Martinez said the brotherhood of the Wolf doesn’t allow having a different quarterback or adversity from those changes to create a negative emotional impact. Junior Tyler Brewer (6-4, 201) started the first four games leading Lincoln to a 3-1 record.
He sustained a cut behind his ear that wasn’t healing so Lincoln went with junior Levi Wright (6-5, 225) against Pea Ridge (55-21 loss) and Berryville (39-35 win). Avellaneda took over against Green Forest (41-14 win).
“We just move on. I don’t know, it’s like we push what happens aside and we move on and we work with him. It’s like we’re all brothers and we all know who is (at quarterback). It’s not like we don’t know who each other are, but it comes easy when we’re such a small team we know everybody and we just work together as a team to achieve what we need to do,” Martinez said.
Preparing For Gentry
Friday is senior night at Lincoln with the Wolves playing host to Gentry, a 28-21 winner over Prairie Grove last week. The Wolves know they better be prepared on defense. Gentry used a two-headed monster attack at quarterback, senior Brandon Atwood in the first half, and junior Zach Jarnagan in the second half, against Prairie Grove.
Both quarterbacks can run and Gentry likes the short passing game. The duo combined to complete 12-of20 passes for 191 yards and a touchdown versus Prairie Grove.
Lincoln senior linebacker Marcus Sturgill (6-0, 180) had a key interception stopping Green Forest from a potential game-tying drive in the first quarter two weeks ago. He attributed the play to a combination of training and instinct noting Green Forest continued to run the ball throughout the drive.
The Tigers kept the ball on the ground on 9 of their first 10 plays. The lone exception was an 8-yard pass to convert fourth-and-4. Green Forest had a first down at Lincoln’s 22, but was held to 3 yards on two plays. On third down Green Forest gained 5 yards on a short pass leaving them with fourth-and-2 at Lincoln’s 14 when Sturgill made his interception.
“They just kept on running it and then the last play before that was a tight end dump and we had been preparing for that all week. I thought I messed up my assignment cause that was me,” Sturgill said.
However his reads were better than he realized.
On the fourth down play Sturgill saw Green Forest fake a tight end dump as a runningback came out of the backfield in a pattern. Sturgill ran with the back and when he caught the ball didn’t even realize he had it in his hands until he heard his teammates yelling, “Go.”
“So I took off running,” Sturgill said, adding, “Yeah, that definitely gave us a boost to run it back down and score.”
The turnover was huge enabling Lincoln to flip the field and go up 14-0 by driving the other way for a touchdown.
Defensive Trenches
Martinez (5-8, 255) earned Player-of-the-Week honors against Green Forest.
“It’s tough. Sometimes it’s really hard to get through the line. Sometimes you’re going against 6-3 or 6-4 300-pound linemen and it’s hard. You just got to grind and grind,” Martinez said.
Classmate Bryce Swinford (6-0, 244) frees up Martinez.
“With Bryce and them it comes easy because sometimes he takes on the doubleteam and I get singled,” Martinez said.”But really it’s just hard work. Hard work pays off.”
Friday’s kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. at Wolfpack Stadium.