MT. STERLING — Lincoln County saw its offense bottled up the second half Friday as host Montgomery County scored 27 unanswered points over the third and fourth quarters in a 54-26 win over the Patriots.

Lincoln (6-4) managed just 68 yards on the ground and 13 through the air over most of the final 24 minutes of the game as Montgomery (8-2) used the scoring surge to turn a seven-point lead into a rout.

“It was 27-20 in the third quarter,” Patriot coach Spencer Crutchfield said. “That’s what’s disappointing is, we have the ability to be really good. But our mindset has to be right. We all have to buy into doing the things we need to do to be successful on the field. We just didn’t have that tonight. We had some things happen that we’ll get cleaned up.”

“Lackluster effort. Our mind wasn’t in the game. It’s not what you want the week before a playoff game, I can tell you that.”

The Patriots would finish the second half with 132 rushing yards, with the Lincoln subs going 64 yards on the team’s final possession. Rodney Alcorn capped off the final drive with a 3-yard touchdown.

Lincoln finished with 286 yards total offense, 199 on the ground.

The Lincoln “D” had trouble corralling Montgomery’s stable of runners, giving up 431 rushing yards and 502 total yards to the Indians. Two Montgomery backs rushed for over 100 yards and three touchdowns in the game. Josh Wheaton had more rushing yards than Lincoln did as a team, getting 204 yards and three TDs on 22 carries. Justin Korossy ran for 169 yards and three scores on 10 carries.

Korossy scored his first touchdown one minute, 35 seconds into the game. The senior running back returned the opening kickoff 33 yards to the Lincoln 48 then, four plays later, he ran 40 yards to the end zone to put Montgomery on the scoreboard, 7-0.

Four minutes later, Lincoln broke on the scoreboard. The 68-yard, eight-play drive culminated in a Darius Napier touchdown off a 51-yard pass from Bryson Yaden to make it 7-6, Indians.
That was as close at the Patriots would get.

Pharoah Davis caught a 21-yard pass from Trey Ishmael with 2:18 left in the first quarter to push the Montgomery lead to 14-6, then Korossy tacked on his second score midway through the second quarter, going in from 19 yards out to make it 20-6.

Lincoln trimmed the Montgomery lead to one score, 20-13, with 2:42 to go in the first half, with Napier scoring on a 44-yard run. But the margin was back to two scores, 27-13, by the break, as Wheaton ran 41 yards for a score with just 1:25 on the clock.

It took Lincoln just two minutes to score as the second half got underway. Yaden used a 42-yard first down run to help move the opening drive along then scored from the 6-yard line to get the Patriots within 27-20.

Unfortunately, Montgomery followed with its 27-0 scoring run to blow the game wide open.

Korossy, Wheaton and Josh Akers all scored in the third quarter. Korossy scored from 21 yards out, Wheaton from 3 and Akers from 12 to put the Indians up 47-20. Wheaton capped off the scoring run with a 3-yard run early in the fourth quarter for a 54-20 margin.

“We kind of had some things creep back in tonight that we hadn’t had all year,” Crutchfield said. “We had bad attitudes, bad body language. We’ll fix that. I can handle that. I think a lot of it is, these guys – it’s a grind. The season’s a grind.”

“But the season starts this week. That’s what I want to get across.”

If Crutchfield is to get his point across, he has to do it this week.

“We’ve got a week to get it cleaned up because the playoffs start next week,” he said. “We’ll go back to work and we’re going to try and get better and be 1-0 next week. We’ve just got to get better. That’s the only thing we can do because, if we don’t get better, then we’ll go home next week and the season’s over.”

Napier led Lincoln’s offense with 74 yards and a touchdown on 15 carries and three receptions for 64 yards and a score. Yaden went 6-for-13 for 87 yards. He threw one interception.

Defensively, Levi Daugherty and Napier led the Patriots with seven tackles each. Daugherty had six solo tackles and Napier had five. Mykah Turpin had five tackles, with two solos.

at Montgomery Co.
Lincoln 6 7 7 7 – 21
Montgomery 14 13 20 0 – 27

Scoring
1st Qtr
MC: 10:25 – Justin Korossy 40-yd run (Zane Carter kick).
LC: 6:29 – Darius Napier 51-yd pass from Bryson Yaden (Loren Melton kick).
MC: 2:18 – Pharoah Davis 21-yd pass from Trey Ishmael (Carter kick).

2nd Qtr
MC: 6:02 – Korossy 19-yd run (Kick failed).
LC: 2:42 – Napier 44-yd run (Melton kick).
MC: 1:25 – Josh Wheaton 41-yd run (Carter kick).

3rd Qtr
LC: 10:02 – Yaden 6-yd run (Melton kick).
MC: 7:05 – Korossy 21-yd run (Carter kick).
MC: 5:32 – Wheaton 3-yd run (Kick failed).
MC: :54.8 – Jaden Akers 12-yd run (Carter kick).

4th Qtr
MC: 10:12 – Wheaton 3-yd run (Carter kick).
LC: :40.7 – Rodney Alcorn 3-yd run (Run failed).

Game Stats
LC MC
Rushing 36-199 43-431
Passing 6-16-1 4-8-1
Yards 87 71
Total Off./Yds. 52-286 51-502
First Downs 9 15
Fumbles/Lost 0/0 2/0
Penalties 2/15 7/75

Individual Stats
Rushing
Lincoln
Darius Napier: 15 carries, 74 yds, TD.
Bryson Yaden: 4 carries, 47 yds, TD.
Rodney Alcorn: 5 carries, 42 yds, TD.
Clayton Davis: 5 carries, 17 yds.
Levi Daugherty: 2 carries, 11 yds.
Dylan Burchfield: 5 carries, 8 yds.

Montgomery
Josh Wheaton: 22 carries, 204 yds, 3TDs.
Justin Korossy: 10 carries, 169 yds, 3TDs.
Jaden Akers: 4 carries, 32 yds.
Dylan Cundiff: 2 carries, 24 yds.
Gabe Miller: 2 carries, 3 yds.
Alex Ison: 1 carry, 0 yds.
Trey Ishmael: 2 carries, (-1) yds.

Passing
Lincoln
Bryson Yaden – 6-13-1, 87 yds, TD; Clayton Davis – 0-2-0; Darius Napier – 0-1-0.
Receiving
Darius Napier – 3-64 yds, TD; Zack Hazlett – 1-13; Sawyer Carrier – 2-10.

Montgomery
Trey Ishmael – 4-8-1, 71 yds, TD; Dillon Wray – 0-0-0.
Receiving
Pharoah Davis – 4-71 yds, TD.