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Just three years after returning to 11-man football after playing 8-man for two seasons, the Lincoln Cardinals finished their second-straight unbeaten regular season with a 46-0 dominance over their neighborhood rivals from eight miles away, Cole Camp.
“Our whole lives we’ve been playing Cole Camp and red-and-blue (Lincoln is red, Cole Camp blue) just don’t mix,” explained Lincoln running back Derek Stephens, who scored four touchdowns on six carries for 80 yards and two pass receptions for 52 yards. “If you live around here you know it and if you don’t you’ll find out.”
“These kids grew up playing in youth league together so it’s been a battle ever since they were kids,” added Lincoln head coach Danny Morrison. “It’s been going on since the first and second grade so it’s nice to see them finish like this. Especially for our seniors. They’ve been looking forward to this for a long time.”
Lincoln looked like they were looking forward to the rivalry game from the very start with a 65-yard scoring drive on their opening possession that took over seven minutes of the first quarter. Cardinal quarterback Boone Kronke, who had nine rushes for 101-yards on the night, did most of the damage but Stephens scored the touchdown,, barely crossing the goal-line on fourth-and-three play.
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Although they never converted an extra-point in the first half, Lincoln continued to add to its lead. On their next drive they moved 54-yards with Stephens bolting over from a yard-out to make it 12-0,
Less than a minute later at 8:39 of the second quarter the Cardinal defense got involved when Blake Roberts came up with the first-of-two interceptions he returned for a touchdown on the night to make it 18-0.
And in the final two minutes before the intermission, a simple pass out in the flat from Kronke to Stephens in the opposite director of the flow on the play turned into a 48-yard touchdown to put Lincoln firmly in control by the half 24-0.
From there a Lincoln team that had been averaging 54-points-per-game while giving up just seven was on its way to a 46-0 final that ended the regular season with a perfect 9-0 record for the second straight year. It’s a fact made even more amazing when you consider the Cardinal program is just eight years-old, went 0-19 in 2010-11 and dropped down to 8-man football in 2012-13 before going 5-5 in its first-year back at 11-man in 2014.
“A couple of years ago we had a ton of injuries and that was devastating to us,” Morrison recalled of that 500 season. “I knew this year that if we stayed healthy we’d be a team to contend with. It’s been an incredible ride. We didn’t want to go 8-man but we didn’t have a choice because our numbers got too low. But we promised our kids that if they stuck it out and we got the numbers back up, we’d move back to 11-man. Our seniors were freshman when we were 8-man and now they’re back and done a great job.”
And there’s certainly some unfinished business Lincoln wants to address. After going undefeated during the regular season last year, they made it all the way to the district finals before losing to Skyline 42-8. And they are definitely looking for an opportunity to play the Tigers again this year.
“We would love that, we really would,” Stephens said with a serious look on his face.
“We want to win districts obviously,” Morrison said. “We don’t care who we play and the good thing is we should be hosting all three games this year (as the number one seed) so that will be fantastic for our community and our kids. If we face them, great. But we just want to keep playing football.”
But there’s no doubt that anything less than a district title will be a disappointment for Lincoln.
“Yes, it will be,” Morrison admitted. “That’s our goal right now and if we take care of that one we’ll set another one for the next level.”
As for Cole Camp, their 7-2 record completes a very successful season for them but their Class 2 district is among the toughest in the state with state-ranked Fair Grove and Lamar, the five-time defending state champs.
