The Lincoln East football team pulled out a 27-24 win against crosstown rival Lincoln Northeast in a seesaw game that the Spartans finally won with three seconds remaining Friday at Seacrest
Posted: Friday, September 28, 2007 7:00 pm
It was easy enough for Graham Thurber, Matt Palm and Tyson Clark to laugh about it.
After all, their Lincoln East football team had just pulled out a 27-24 win against crosstown rival Lincoln Northeast in a seesaw game that the Spartans finally won with three seconds remaining Friday at Seacrest Field.
A less-than-stellar first half by the Spartans meant the players heard a little chewing out at halftime.
“What happened? You mean besides the beatings,” Thurber said, grinning at coach John Gingery. “Coach just told us to do what we do in practice. We just had to believe what the plan told us. It started working for us in the second half.”
Thurber and his line mates gave Palm enough time to find his receivers. In the first half, Palm had to hurry nearly every pass and threw for just 30 yards. He finished with 210 yards.
The final 3 yards to Clark with three seconds left were the most important, although they wouldn’t have be possible without the 33-yard lob pass that Clark outjumped the Northeast defenders for at the Rocket 4-yard line.
“It all comes down to the long, long pass play,” said Northeast coach Dave Svehla. “When it comes down to a jump ball, we’re not going to win a lot of those.
“They executed some long pass plays. We were there. We’re just vertically challenged. Their kid made a phenomenal catch there at the end.”
Clark, who turned 17 Friday, said he knew he would get to the long pass from Palm.
“I knew it had enough air under it that I would be able to get to it,” the junior said. “They were still there, so I just jumped up and caught it.”
The 6-foot-4 Clark said his advantage was pretty large, indicating one of the defenders came to about the top of the numbers on his chest.
“The other one was a little taller, but I knew I could get it,” he said.
Palm said he knew his team was ready for that last march and having big receivers didn’t hurt.
“I just looked at everybody’s eyes and they had calm looks in their eyes,” Palm said. “It’s a big benefit to have a receiver who’s 6-4 and Drew Sankey is another 6-4 guy. They’re usually taller than everybody else and that helps out a lot.”
That wasn’t Clark’s first long catch of the night. He had a 33-yard catch that set up a third-quarter score, which gave East its first lead of the game at 13-10.
“There was a noticeable change from the first half,” Palm said. “I just didn’t come out confident enough at the start.”
That he was running for his life and releasing the ball as Northeast defenders rammed into him might have contributed to that confidence level.
“At halftime, our line coach told us they were going to blitz,” Thurber said. “We just came out a lot stronger in the second half and started picking up their blitzes.”
Both teams were ineffective in the first half. In fact, it wasn’t a very good game to watch. That changed in the second half. And it wasn’t just because of the offenses. The defenses made things exciting as well. Thurber had three tackles for losses and hurried Jordan Burt into an incomplete pass that led to a punt.
“I got after the kids at halftime and challenged them,” Gingery said. “I told them we weren’t playing Spartan football. They took the run away and we had to throw the ball.
“We had some opportunities in the first half, we just didn’t get the ball to them. That forced us to do some things we weren’t comfortable doing. I challenged those linemen and told them we had to give Matt a chance.”
The lead changed hands five times in the second half, which is more like a basketball game than a football game.
“They had some long plays. When they just keep running it up the middle, it’s kind of disheartening,” Thurber said. “It takes the wind out of you.”
The game — at least the second half with its seven scores — certainly left everyone else breathless.
Reach Ryly Jane Hambleton at 473-7314 or rhambleton@journalstar.com.