By Matt Turer — mturer@ky3.com
@MattTurer
Monroe City, Mo. — Call it death by a thousand paper cuts. Call it a heartbreaker. Call it a game of ‘what-ifs.’ Call it what you will, really. There’s no way to put a band-aid on the lone blemish left on Lincoln’s 2016 football season.
With the clock reading 6:12 remaining in the final quarter, the Cardinals stared a 34-22 deficit in the face and, for a while, seemed to laugh at the mountain before them. Seemed to laugh as just 82 seconds later, the scoreboard instead read 34-28. Then, seemed to laugh again as they forced a Monroe City fumble on the following drive and, after turning it over on downs, laughed as, with zero timeouts and the clock ticking to 48 seconds, forced a fumble again.
The joke was there. The punchline ready. The crowd on edge. The Cardinals threatening. But then a drop came at the hands of a hit only seen with a championship on the line. A jarring, unforgettable hit. And then another drop, this one in the open field, unchallenged. Suddenly, just 4.8 seconds, and one final shot from Monroe City’s 31, remained.
Boone Kroenke was pressured out of the pocket. With the hail mary broken, the dumpoff went to Derek Stephens. For a second, the Cardinals may have believed. The open field was there. Stephens went 20 yards untouched. But then, like a black hole sucking the last light out of a once-pristine star, the black-on-black uniforms of Monroe City hit Stephens’ bright white uniform high, and took out his feet low. Those feet went up, the ball went down, and the Panthers prepped their buses for state.
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“We fought hard,” Lincoln head coach Danny Morrison said. “Hats off to [Monroe City]. They’re a great football team. A big power team. We wish lots of luck to them next week.”
Kroenke starred for Lincoln (13-1), putting up 142 yards on 16 carries while throwing for 231 yards and three touchdowns on 12-22 passing.
“I’ve had nightmares about that kid for a week,” Monroe City head coach David Kirby said of Kroenke. “It was an honor to try to stop him. Man, he’s a great football player.
“That whole team (Lincoln) is just loaded with great talent. Lincoln should be so happy with that program. From what they’ve come from, to where they were, to where they are now, my goodness. That’s just a great quality football team right there and I was honored to coach against them today.”
Monroe City (11-3) didn’t do it with a whole lot of flash. But what they did was effective. The Panthers didn’t attempt a single pass, rushing the ball 56 times for 308 yards. By comparison, Lincoln finished with 429 total yards (231 passing, 198 rushing).
Zacharee Osborn was the star for the Panthers, finishing with 109 yards and two touchdowns on 11 carries, and adding a 75-yard kickoff return score that put Monroe City up 12-8 with 5:10 to play in the first half.
Osborn was complimented by Logan Minter, a big power back and linebacker who put together a tough 83 yards and a score on 20 carries.
“They’re a big, physical team,” Morrison said. “I thought we held our own and stuck in there size-wise. Some misdirection stuff killed us at the end. We were planning on shutting down the run and I thought we did a good job with that until they started getting outside on the counters and reverses and things like that.”
Monroe City converted four fourth downs, a stat that was a result of their consistent run offense putting the Panthers in frequent third-and-short and fourth-and-short situations.
After forcing a Monroe City punt on the game’s opening drive, Kroenke drove Lincoln to a first-and-goal at the Panthers’ one-yard line, but a high snap over his head and a subsequent hold pushed Lincoln back to the 34-yard line. The Cardinals would turn it over on downs.
Similar mistakes haunted the Cardinals throughout the afternoon, with three key holding penalties, rare sacks of Kroenke and a lost fumble in Monroe City territory crushing different variations of momentum.
“We definitely shot ourselves in the foot a few times,” Simmons said. “The fumbles. The snap over the head at the goalline. Different things like that. It’s hard to win a football game when you’re doing that. But, on the flip side, we forced a couple fumbles, so I can’t say that was the key factor.”
Lincoln cut a 20-8 deficit to 20-16 with 2.8 seconds remaining in the first half on a 30-yard Kroenke touchdown pass to Blake Roberts. Roberts caught five passes for 84 yards and two touchdowns.
A nearly six-minute Lincoln drive to open the second half resulted in Lincoln’s only punt after a seven-yard loss and two incompletions in Monroe City territory ended a promising drive.
The Panthers went up 28-16 on the following drive on a one-yard Osborn score with 30 seconds left in the third quarter.
Aaron Kranz returned the next kickoff all the way to Monroe City’s 21-yard line and Kroenke hit Roberts with a 13-yard strike two plays later to pull within 28-22 with three seconds left in the third quarter.
Stephens finished with five catches for 83 yards and a touchdown and seven carries for 54 yards and a touchdown.
“We have a good offense,” Simmons said. “We know we can move the ball. We knew we were going to score. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out for us [in the end]. We were just trying to keep positive and motivated. It came all the way down to the last second at the eight-yard line and that’s where our season ended, unfortunately.”
With cheers coming from one end after the game, tears flowed on the other as Lincoln’s decorated senior class prepared to leave the field for the final time.
“They’re not just good athletes, they’re great kids,” Simmons said. “They’re great leaders. This was a great year for us. I’m just going to remember how much fun we had and how hard they worked. Just a great bunch of kids.”
SCORING
Lincoln 0 16 6 6
Monroe City 0 20 8 6
SCORING PLAYS
1st Quarter
N/A
2nd Quarter
8:14 — Cole Pennewell 1-yard run [2-pt fail] — 6-0 MC
5:24 — Derek Stephens 5-yard run [2-pt good] — 8-6 LINCOLN
5:10 — Zacharee Osborn 75-yard kickoff return [2-pt fail] — 12-8 MC
0:51 — Osborn 44-yard run [2-pt good] — 20-8 MC
0:03 — Boone Kroenke 30-yard pass to Blake Roberts [2-pt good] — 20-16 MC
3rd Quarter
0:30 — Osborn 1-yard run [2-pt good] — 28-16 MC
0:03 — Kroenke 13-yard pass to Roberts [2-pt fail] — 28-22 MC
4th Quarter
6:12 — Logan Minter 9-yard run [2-pt fail] — 34-22 MC
4:50 — Kroenke 24-yard pass to Stephens [2-pt fail] — 34-28 MC
