A TALE OF TWO HALVES (LINCOLN vs FL HIGH) - RECAP

Ronald Butler and Raphael Andrades hooked up regularly to pull
out a victory against Florida High Friday night at Lincoln Trojan Field.



Lincoln came into this game with every reason to play well. They had just lost their National Ranking after losing last week. They were playing for the first time in their brand new green Nike uniforms. They had just lost a Lincoln icon (Jimmy Everett), who was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS) in 2009, and had just passed away the night before. And they were playing on their own home High School field for the first time since 2002 which is surrounded by the Jimmy Everett Track. With motivation coming at them from every possible direction, the team still managed to come out flat. Passionless. Unfocused. Florida High on the other hand came in undefeated (2-0) and came to play as though they wanted to stay that way. After the ball exchanged hands a couple of times Florida High forced the first turnover of the game when Leitaras Stokes forced a fumble that was recovered by the Seminoles. With great field position FL High would punch it in to take an early 7-0 lead. A couple of exchanges later Florida High would punt the ball away to Lincoln, as the ball was being returned there was another fumble by Lincoln. The ball bounced perfectly in to hands of Austin Logan who returned the fumble for the second score of the game and a 14-0 lead. To say that the Lincoln crowd was stunned would be a terrible understatement. Lincoln finally answered the bell when Ronald Butler hooked up with Raphael Andrades on a short 5 yard pass. Andrades made one move, and raced the rest of the way for a 66 yard score to make it 14-7 with a little over a minute left in the half. The Seminoles would not go away easy. After a good return put them in great field position, FL High would connect on a strike from about 30 yards out to go into the lockerroom up 21-7.

The second half would prove to be more of what most people, except for Florida High, expected. Interestingly enough, according to the players the lockerroom at halftime was not full of yelling and screaming by Head Coach Yusuf Shakir. They said that he hardly said anything at all. The Senior leaders like Ronald Butler and Eric Childs spoke to the team, and they came out with a renewed sense of purpose. Lincoln then took the opening two drives down field for scores set up by the passing game tying up the score 21-21. The Seminoles would struggle on offense going 3 and out on several occassions in the second half, while Lincoln would convert on crucial third and sometimes fourth downs to keep drives alive. Lincoln even committed a Cardinal sin... on fourth down they lined up and made a field goal, however, a running into the kicker penalty would shorten the distance on the fourth down. The Trojans took points off of the board to go for it on fourth down, they converted and later punched it in. Later in the fourth, Lincoln running back DJ Abnar would almost seal the deal with his second score of the night, but the extra point was blocked leaving the door open for the Seminoles. Finally, trying to stay alive on 4th and 1 the Seminoles handed the ball off to their running back, but Eric Childs would get penetration and stop him dead in his tracks for a two yard loss to close the door on the Seminoles. Lincoln won the second half 20-0 and was led by Abnar finished who with 18 carries for 143 yards and 2 TDs, Butler 17-of-25 for 278 and 1 TD, Andrades 7 catches 194 yards and 1 TD, while FL High got 73 yards on 20 carries from Ke'Sean Lewis.