If Lincoln East went into Friday’s regular-season finale at Seacrest Field against heavy underdog Lincoln High figuring it could coast to a win, the Class A seventh-ranked Spartans should have been abused of that notion by halftime, when they were clinging to a 7-3 lead. But just in case, East coach John Gingery said he gave his squad a little pep talk at halftime.

“I challenged them. I got after them pretty good at halftime,” Gingery said. “I told them Lincoln High is a good football team. Mike Fultz and his staff have done a good job with that team and they’ve played hard all year long. I told them they wouldn’t go away, and they didn’t. We kind of thought we had this one in the bag and we were doing things we hadn’t done all season, so I got after our kids pretty good.”

The Spartans apparently got the message, as they came out and scored two touchdowns in the first 6 minutes and 5 seconds of the second half to build a 21-3 lead on their way to a hard-fought 35-17 win before 2,274 fans. With the win, East finished the regular season 7-2, including 3-2 in District A-2, and unofficially assured itself of a home game Friday in the first round of the Class A state playoffs. The Links finished 1-8 overall and 0-5 in the district.

East senior quarterback Jim Ebke scored the first second-half touchdown on a 2-yard run with 9:02 left in the third quarter, a score set up by his 44-yard pass to Justin Burns on a play that carried to the Links’ 15-yard line. Ebke threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Ravi Mahapatra for the second TD of the half, completing a three-play 52-yard drive set up by Levi Lash’s interception of a Lincoln High pass.

“Mainly, it was just attitude,” Gingery said of the two quick touchdowns. “We weren’t making plays and they were teeing off on Jim (Ebke). We had to take care of our quarterback and just execute.

“They played really tough, but we came out and executed better in the second half and took advantage of some things that they were giving us. We thought we could get some things on the outside with our passing game. They were stacking up to try to stop the run. That gave us the passing game and Jimmy’s a heck of a passer.”

Ebke had another outstanding game, rushing 23 times for 170 yards and three touchdowns while completing 6 of 14 passes for 132 yards and a TD.

His counterpart for Lincoln High, senior Grant Davis, completed 19 of 40 passes for 170 yards, but the Links were shut down on the ground, finishing with just 8 rushing yards. Junior Cody Fultz, nephew of Links head coach Mike Fultz, scored both Lincoln High touchdowns, one on a 64-yard fumble return and the second on a 1-yard run.

“The kids played well, they played hard, and they played four quarters, which is all we can ever ask, but this game wasn’t about now,” Mike Fultz said. “It was about the future, how they’re going to respond when things aren’t going really well. Five, six, 10 years down the road, they can look back and say, ‘Hey, I’ve seen that monster before and it doesn’t frighten me.’ If they can respond like that, then we’ve done something.”