Justin Burns countered a 68-yard punt with a 64-yard return to set up Lincoln East's final touchdown in a 21-9 victory over Columbus Friday night.
LINCOLN ARNEAL for the Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Friday, September 21, 2007 7:00 pm
Standing near the 50-yard line, Justin Burns watched Mike Ziola’s punt sail over his head.
The Lincoln East senior turned and retreated, and by the time he corralled the 68-yard boot, he stood just 10 yards from his end zone.
Burns then countered the monster punt by weaving his way 64 yards to set up the Spartans’ last touchdown Friday.
The final TD helped Lincoln East improve to 4-1 with a 21-9 victory against Columbus at Beechner Complex.
“We needed a big return because we needed to get great field position out of this. I saw one or two guys I had to beat and after that I saw a big blue wall,” said Burns, who also intercepted a pass on the last play of the game.
“The great field position boosted our confidence and gave us the drive we needed in the fourth quarter.”
After dominating the first half with 204 yards of total offense, Burns’ return jump-started the Spartans down the stretch.
After managing just 54 yards until that time in the second half, Matt Palm capped off the eight-play drive with a 2-yard run on fourth down.
“The return was huge because in the second half, this game was in doubt until the very end,” East coach John Gingery said. “We knew we had to punch one more in because with the way they were moving the ball, we didn’t think 14 (points) would be enough to win.”
In the first half, East pounded away at Columbus with a deceiving run attack. Even though the Spartans took every snap from the shotgun, they rushed the ball 31 times for 196 yards, and attempted just five passes.
East ran the ball on 19 of 21 plays during scoring drives of 92 and 80 yards to take a 14-3 lead at halftime. Harry Meginnis finished off both possessions with touchdown runs of 5 and 1 yards.
Quarterback Palm finished with 150 yards on the ground, while Brice Tyrell added 46. Meginnis and Christopher Conner each had 42 rushing yards.
Columbus’ problem the entire game was finishing drives. Even though the Discoverers ran 20 offensive plays in Spartan territory in the first half, they managed only three points and never got into the red zone.
Columbus fared slightly better after halftime, but never got closer than the 15-yard line. Ziola converted a pair of 32-yard field goals to go with his 47-yard kick in the first half, to account for all of the Discoverers’ points. He also finished 21-for-33 passing for 256 yards, while Michael Gross added 73 rushing yards for Columbus.
“We told our kids all along that we have to have players step up and make plays,” Columbus coach “They were great up to that point, but we couldn’t get it done inside the 20-yard line.”