Pats celebrate homecoming with 42-14 win
Published 12:37 pm Thursday, September 26, 2019
Photos by Nancy Leedy LINCOLN COUNTY’S Kade Bandura (80) and Dylan Burchfield (20) hold South Laurel defenders at bay, giving Zack Hazlett room to run up the middle in the Patriots’ 42-14 win Friday night. Hazlett had 154 yards offense, with four receptions for 113 yards and a TD and six rushes for 41 yards and a score.
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STANFORD — The Lincoln County football Patriots capped Homecoming 2019 with an impressive 42-14 victory over South Laurel Friday night at Death Valley Stadium.
Lincoln’s offense flexed its depth as it bounced back from last week’s heartbreaking OT loss at North Laurel, with four different players scoring touchdowns as it racked up 377 yards total offense. Defensively, Lincoln allowed 184 rushing yards and 160 passing yards but held the Cardinals to two touchdowns.
“I challenged these guys to come out and make plays and play four quarters. You know, we hadn’t really put a whole game together all year,” Lincoln coach Spencer Crutchfield said. “I’m proud of these guys. They took the challenge. We came in ready to work. We didn’t let a couple close losses affect us. We came in and were ready to go and I’m happy for these guys.”
The Patriot offense sputtered in the OT loss to North Laurel, but rushed for 220 yards and five touchdowns on 36 carries in Friday’s win and picked up 157 yards and a TD off the pass.
“We had a little come-to-Jesus meeting with these guys to let them know exactly what we’re expecting,” said Crutchfield. “We’ve got to make plays when they’re there and we did. And we spread the ball around tonight. It’s hard to defend when you actually execute. Proud of those guys.”
Senior quarterback Nick Harris, who went 9-for-16 for the 157 passing yards, tallied the night’s first score, capping off the game’s opening possession, a 61-yard, six-play drive, with a 1-yard push up the middle.
And Lincoln (3-2) never looked back.
Senior Dylan Burchfield, who led the Lincoln ground game with 92 yards on 14 carries, scored a touchdown in the win and Zack Hazlett and Levi Daugherty, also seniors, both scored twice. Hazlett had 154 total yards, with four receptions for 113 yards and a TD and 41 yards and a score off six carries. Daugherty rushed the ball six times for 39 yards and two touchdowns.
Turnovers, a South Laurel fumble and an intercepted Lincoln pass, killed the next two drives, but Lincoln began its second march to the end zone late in the first quarter.
The Patriots took over on their own 22 and needed just one play to advance the ball to the Cardinals’ 13, with Hazlett pulling in a 65-yard pass from Harris. Harris ran the ball in on the next play only to have the score nullified on a holding penalty. Three plays later, Harris hit Hazlett for a 9-yard touchdown pass. Loren Melton booted the second of his six point after kicks to put Lincoln up 14-0 a minute and a half into the second quarter.
South (2-3) got on the scoreboard with 7:29 to play in the first half, with Logan Gentry hitting Daterian Brigance for a 7-yard touchdown pass. The two-point conversion pass attempt failed.
Lincoln took a 21-6 lead into the half with Daugherty scoring his first touchdown on a 5-yard run with 1:19 on the clock. The Pats took possession at the South Laurel 41 on downs and drove the 59 yards to the goal line in six plays.
The Cardinals struck first in the second half. Jordan Ramey, who led South with 160 yards and a touchdown on 24 carries, scored on a 1-yard run. The 80-yard, 12-play drive was moved along by three rushing first downs, one passing first down and a first down off a Lincoln penalty. The drive culminated in Ramey’s TD and Dylan Burdine’s two-point conversion run to get South as close as 21-12 with 4:43 left in the third
That would be as close as South would get.
Just over two minutes later, Burchfield pushed in his touchdown on a 2-yard run to extend the Lincoln lead back out to two touchdowns, 28-14. Daugherty got his second score, a 9-yard touchdown, just over a minute into the fourth quarter to make it 34-14, then Hazlett capped the night’s scoring with a 2-yard touchdown with 3:02 to play. Hazlett used a 41-yard first-down run to get Lincoln inside the South 20 to set up the final score.
There was a big difference in penalties in Friday’s game with South whistled for 12 penalties for a total of 77 yards while Lincoln was just penalized 20 yards on three penalties.
“We’re going to play smart football. That’s one of the things I preach to these guys,” Crutchfield said. “We’ve got to take care of us, play smart and not beat ourselves. We were able to do that tonight. Things got a little chippy, but we kept our heads and prevailed. We were able to draw them offsides in a few key spots.
Proud of our guys being disciplined.”
Robert Bowman and Darren Griffin led the Lincoln “D” with 11 tackles apiece. Bowman had six solo tackles and Griffin, five.
at Lincoln Co.
So. Laurel 0 6 8 0 – 14
Lincoln 7 14 7 14 – 42
Scoring
1st Qtr
Lincoln: 9:19 – Nick Harris 1-yard run (Loren Melton kick).
2nd Qtr
Lincoln: 10:24 – Zack Hazlett 9-yard pass from Harris. (Melton kick).
South Laurel: 7:29 – Daterian Brigance 7-yard pass from Logan Gentry (pass failed).
Lincoln: 1:19 – Levi Daugherty 5-yard run (Melton kick).
3rd Qtr
South Laurel: 4:45 – Jordan Ramey 1-yard run (Dylan Burdine run).
Lincoln: 2:14 – Dylan Burchfield 2-yard run (Melton kick).
4th Qtr
Lincoln: 10:43 – Daugherty 9-yard run (Melton kick).
Lincoln: 3:02 – Hazlett 2-yard run (Melton kick).
Game Stats
SL LC
Rushing 33-184 36-220
Passing 15-23-0 9-16-2
Yards 160 157
Total Off./Yds 56-344 52-377
First Downs 15 19
Fumbles/Lost 2/1 1/0
Penalties 12/77 3/20
Individual Stats
Rushing
South Laurel
Jordan Ramey: 24 carries, 160 yards, TD.
Logan Gentry: 6 carries, 20 yards.
Brenton Willoughby: 3 carries, 4 yards.
Lincoln
Dylan Burchfield: 14 carries, 92 yards, TD.
Zack Hazlett: 6 carries, 41 yards, TD.
Levi Daugherty: 6 carries, 39 yards, 2TDs.
Nick Harris: 6 carries, 31 yards, TD.
Rodney Alcorn: 4 carries, 17 yards.
Passing/Receiving
South Laurel
Logan Gentry – 15-23-0, 160 yards, TD.
Receiving
Traeton Napier – 7-78 yards; Daterian Brigance – 6-56, TD; Elisha Dugger – 1-18; Jordan Ramey – 1-8.
Lincoln
Nick Harris – 9-16-2, 157 yards, TD.
Receiving
Zack Hazlett – 4-113 yards, TD; Clayton Davis – 5-44.
