KEARNEY - Long bus trips and kickers may haunt Lincoln Southwest's dreams for a while.

Kearney sophomore Spencer Lindsay kicked a 23-yard field goal as time expired to give the Bearcats a 20-17 victory against Class A No. 8 Lincoln Southwest before 2,000 fans Friday at Cope Stadium on the Nebraska-Kearney campus.

A week ago, Grand Island spilled Southwest by an extra point in double overtime in Grand Island.

"I thought we'd be in another 17-17 overtime game and have a chance for a different outcome this week," said Southwest coach Mark King, whose team fell to 3-2. "But we made some key mistakes on defense at the end and they hit the passes they needed."

Southwest struggled to move the ball until quarterback Rylan Cotton capped a 10-play, 76-yard drive with a 9-yard touchdown run to the corner of the end zone with 10:29 left in the game. The game was tied at 10.

Kearney then packaged a miraculous drive, scoring in four plays to go up 17-10 - with passes of 30 and 41 yards by quarterback Brandon Landanger. What made the drive unbelievable was that Landanger was knocked out of the game on the first play after the kickoff, and Southwest sacked backup quarterback Taylor Fish for a 9-yard loss to the Bearcat 29.

"I got my breath, shook my head and went back in and there were some guys open," said Landanger, who connected on 11 passes for 217 yards.

Southwest countered with a masterful 15-play, 82-yard drive that included fourth-and-long completions of 22 and 20 yards to set up a 5-yard touchdown run by Cotton that tied the game at 17 with 2:38 left.

"I thought we'd get the overtime again, but we fell a little short," King said.

Landanger hit Zach Albrecht on a 60-yard pass, and three plays later, Lindsay, who had missed two long field-goal attempts earlier in the game, connected.

"I was nervous, shaking, when we got that long pass because I thought they might come to me," Lindsay said. "I just went through my focus and training and made it. But I was nervous."

Kearney coach Brandon Cool, whose team is 3-2, said the victory was important.

"It was huge and we played some outstanding football against an outstanding team to win," he said. "We love the hitch routes and had an extended one that got us the score to go ahead and got another one to set up the winning field goal. And we had put our kicker in every kind of situation you could have."

Reach Ken Hambleton at 473-7313 or khambleton@journalstar.com.