Ice cold night. Muddy field. Playoff victory.
The Lincoln County High football team took down The Meadows at home last week 29-7 earning them a showdown with Pershing County in the state semifinals.
Coach Rich Ottley was pleased. “It was really cold and the field conditions weren’t great because of the snow, it was really muddy,” he said. “The kids did a really good job, they all stepped up.”
The Lynx got off to a great start with two touchdown drives in the first quarter. Cody Thornock ran in a 4-yard score early in the quarter and followed that with an 11-yard touchdown run midway through the period. “Cody had some pretty great runs,” Ottley said. Thornock finished with 40 yards rushing.
The Meadows fought back in the second quarter with a 60-yard touchdown reception, but McClain O’Connor answered with a 65-yard kickoff return for a touchdown. “It was really crucial because we got the momentum right back away from Meadows,” Ottley said. O’Connor also made some crucial runs for first down downs and finished with 84 yards rushing and 80 yards in the air.
The Lynx allowed no more scores. Ottley praised the coaching ability of Coach Luchacey for the defense. “He did an awesome job with the defense,” he said. “Our defense just played exceptionally well.
Will Culverwell added a fourth quarter 3-yard run or a touchdown.
“[Culverwell] made some great runs,” Ottley said. “Later on down the stretch, Derek Mathews got us a couple important 1st downs,” he added.
The coach said Landen Smith, Mike Wood and Zach Florence all had good catches.”So it was just a really good team effort.”
The semifinal matchup with Pershing County will be Saturday 1 p.m. in Panaca. Lincoln will also be hosting state semifinals this Saturday against the Pershing County Mustangs. The Mustangs are 6-4 overall and 3-2 in league play and upset higher-seeded Battle Mountain 22-8 in the first round last week.
The winner earns a trip to the state championship game on Nov. 21.
