Washington County Enterprise-Leader
‘Pick six’ spoils Lincoln Homecoming
Gravette capitalizes on Wolves’ turnovers, wins 36-34
LINCOLN — Freshman Joseph Beem returned an interception 24 yards for a touchdown to give the Lions their first lead since the first quarter as Gravette spoiled Lincoln’s Homecoming, 36-34, Friday.
Lincoln was flagged for 12 men on the field on the extra-point attempt so Gravette sent out its offense and Gabe Holmes ran in a 2-point conversion, providing the Lions with a 36-28 cushion. Only 2:22 remained in the fourth quarter but that was plenty of time for Lincoln.
Lincoln gave itself a chance as the Wolves answered with a 4-play, 63-yard touchdown drive. The big play featured quarterback Drew Moore’s 54-yard bomb to Kayden Job, who battled his way toward the goal line. Job led the Wolves with 4 catches for 96 yards.
Penalty yardage was tacked on to the end of the run, setting up Lincoln with a first-and-goal at the Lions’ three. Kellar Price found the end zone on the next play, bringing Lincoln within two points. The Wolves ran a trick play on the conversion attempt but Gravette’s defensive backs stayed in position on a reverse pass and the ball fell incomplete.
Gravette recovered an onside kick and ran out the clock.
“We had that set up. We’d been running trap at them all night and had success with it. We give a trap look and then we sneak Kayden down the pipe there and it was wide open. We knew it would be. He made a great play and then we just came up a little short on the two-point conversion,” said Lincoln coach Reed Mendoza.
Gravette coach Kelby Bohannon breathed a sigh of relief when the clock finally expired.
“It was a hard fought game. We knew that coming in. They’re just a really good football team, fundamentally sound. They give you problems in a lot of ways, especially on the offensive side,” Bohannon said. “They took it to us early but we just kind of kept fighting and that was the message at halftime. Just keep plugging away and whenever it’s your chance to make a play, make it and our kids did just that.”
Lincoln senior Jace Birkes, who had 42 receptions for 1.045 yards and 12 touchdowns last season, fought off Beem to maintain possession on a 29-yard touchdown pass, which coupled with Damian Lee’s P.A.T. kick, gave the Wolves a 21-7 lead just inside two-a-halfminutes to play in the first half.
Birkes landed on his back in the
corner of the end zone, clutching the football, while Beem spun off from the contact. Beem came away holding out his hands. The body language offered a simple question, “What else could be done to prevent that catch?”
He would figure out an appropriate response as Bohannon addressed those issues and more at halftime.
“We had a gut check at halftime after the way we played the first half but our kids responded well, especially in the secondary. We challenged them a little bit. We had a newcomer and the pick six is a freshman, J.D. Beem, and he really shined out for us and made a huge play,” Bohannon said.
Asked how hard it might be for a freshman to make that kind of a play, Bohannon revealed confidence in Beem based on a long-term relationship.
“Well, he’s pretty clutch. I’ve known him for a long time since he was little,” Bohannon. “He’s a good kid and he’s surrounded by a football team that believes in him and believes in one another and you saw that tonight the way we responded.”
Gravette scored first on Holmes’ 27-yard run, getting ahead 7-0 on Liam McGuire’s kick nearly five minutes into the contest. Lincoln answered on its next possession with Kale Jones plunging over from a yard out. Lee kicked the tying P.A.T. to knot the score at the 4:14 mark of the first quarter.
Moore threw touchdown passes to Colt Cushing (25 yards) and Birkes following Gravette turnovers.
Jones’ 1-yard run, coupled with Lee’s P.A.T. kick, stretched the Wolves’ to 28-7 at the 10:16 mark of the third quarter. The score was Jones’ second rushing touchdown of the game. But Lincoln suffered numerous turnovers in the second half and wasn’t the same offensively after Jones left the game at the 7:22 mark of the third quarter. He finished with 189 yards rushing on 25 carries with a pair of scores.
Holmes found the end zone on runs of 39, 4 and 3 yards, and added a 2-point conversion run to deadlock the score at 28-28 with 9:09 to go in the fourth.
The Wolves wouldn’t score again until falling behind, 36-28, on Beem’s ‘pick six.’
“No excuses, though, hat’s off to Gravette. They played a good game. They were resilient. They didn’t fold up their tent whenever they were down 28-7. They came back. They did what they had to do to win the game and we didn’t,” Mendoza said. “Injuries or not, we still had our opportunities and we weren’t able to take advantage of them.”
Bohannon said going to the Wildcat with Holmes (19 carries, 162 yards, 4 touchdowns) running the ball, which became a game-changing lineup in the second half, was more out of necessity than strategy.
“Our sophomore quarterback (Cameron Bedwell 7-of-15, 91 yards) has been our guy since week one but Gabe’s also played in there. We had a really good competition early on and he’s had a history of playing quarterback so we knew that we could do some things and any time 10’s got the ball in his hands, it’s good for us,” Bohannon said.
Bedwell completed 7-of-15 passes for 91 yards, but left the game after taking a hard hit in the fourth. Gravette attempted only one pass after that.
Lincoln (4-1, 101 4A-1) hosts Ozark Friday, while Gravette (2-3, 1-1- 4A-1) travels to Huntsville.