RON POWELL / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Friday, August 25, 2006 7:00 pm
It was only fitting that the final hand to touch the football Saturday afternoon at Seacrest Field belonged to Jim Ebke. From rushing for 156 yards and three touchdowns to knocking down Lincoln Southeast’s final hail-mary pass on the Lincoln East 10 yard line on the last play, Ebke handled it for the Spartans. As a result, East held on for a 21-14 season-opening win against No. 10 Southeast, the same score as when the game was suspended Friday night with 4 minutes, 27 seconds left in the third quarter because of lightning.
It was also the Spartans’ first win over Southeast since 1986.
“We put it in his (Ebke’s) hands,’’ said a wet East coach John Gingery after his players emptied the team’s water jug on him. “He makes great reads and really took advantage of what the defense gave us.
“For the longest time, we couldn’t match up physically (with Southeast),’’ added Gingery. “We thought this year we could.’’
The 6-foot-1, 195-pound Ebke lit up the scoreboard Friday night before Mother Nature lit up the skies with three first quarter TD runs of 14, 1 and 29 yards that gave the Spartans a 21-0 lead. On Saturday afternoon, he helped preserve the victory by engineering a 20-play drive that ate up 10:07 of the fourth quarter and moved the Spartans from their own 10-yard line to as deep as the Southeast 2.
Ebke had 11 carries for 56 yards and connected on a 20-yard pass to Michael Knott during the drive. It fizzled after a delay of game penalty and a 20-yard block-in-the-back penalty pushed East back to the 27 and Ebke eventually missed a 38-yard field goal with 1:47 left in the game.
That left Southeast 80 yards from tying it without any timeouts.
“Our whole goal was to keep the ball and wind down the clock,’’ Ebke said. “We watched game film of what we played last night, and we noticed they (Southeast) left the middle wide open. We kept pounding it there.’’
A 21-yard pass down the sidelines from Griffin DePriest to John Kampfe got Southeast to the East 38 with 21 seconds left. DePriest, however, was sacked for a 3-yard loss by Kacey Shane on the next play, leaving the Knights just two seconds when DePriest finally stopped the clock by spiking the ball.
Southeast had an opportunity late in the third quarter when Wes Thurman recovered a botched shot gun snap at the East 37. The Spartans, however, held the Knights to three downs and a punt.
“When the defense gave us a break, we couldn’t move it,’’ Southeast coach Chuck Mizerski said. “Hats off to East. They stepped up defensively when they had to and kept the ball away from us.’’
East not only ended a long losing streak against Southeast with the victory, it was also the Spartans’ second straight win. Their triumph over North Platte to end last season snapped a 16-game losing streak.
“No one understands what this group has been through the last two years, and it’s been more than football,’’ Gingery said, referring to the life-threatening head injury suffered by former Spartan Brady Beran two years ago against Southeast.
“It’s been tough, but these guys never gave up.’’
Reach Ron Powell at 473-7437 or rpowell@journalstar.com.