Nov. 0, 2018

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. --- It really doesn't matter that Lincoln's three wins this season were against teams that went a combined 4-25.

Because for nearly half a century, Lincoln has been one of those teams.

Three wins is three wins ... but four certainly would have been nice.

After the Blue Tigers shaved a 17-point deficit to three midway through the third quarter, the McKendree Bearcats pulled away down the stretch --- thanks in part to one seriously strange football play --- to nail down a 50-32 win in the season-finale for both teams Saturday at Reed Stadium.

Four wins would have been nice, but how about six or seven wins?

This game, along with two or three others this season, could have been --- if not should have been --- won by the Blue Tigers. But learning how to block and tackle and play the game is one thing, learning how to win is the last, and toughest, step in the process.

"We definitely have to learn how to win," said second-year Lincoln coach Steve Smith, whose team was denied the program's first four-win season since 2003. "We definitely had opportunities to win other games, but that's just the growing pains we're going through.

"We need to make the plays to win those games, and not keep making the mistakes to back us up and put us in bad positions. That's what we're doing and that's not the type of team I want to have."

While Lincoln had plenty of incentive Saturday, McKendree (6-5, 4-3 Great Lakes) had its own --- a fourth straight winning season.

Depends on who you ask ...

"I don't care about nobody else's incentive," Smith said, "I'm just worried about what we need to get done."

Playing before a sparse gathering on a silly-cold day for Nov. 10, the Bearcats scored on 95-yard return on the opening kickoff by Matt Cole and were never headed.

Late in the first half, the Bearcats blocked a punt that was recovered in the end zone by Steven Towns, who also blocked it, that gave McKendree a 27-7 lead.

"Those two special teams plays," Smith said, "that's what hurt us. We gave up two touchdowns on special teams, so you take away that 14 and we're right in the game.

"But our special teams put us in a bad position all day."

The Bearcats' special teams made it 10-0 on a 24-yard field goal by Josh Lazaro 5 1/2 minutes into the game, before the Blue Tigers (3-8, 2-5) made it 10-7 after one quarter on a one-yard run by Kimbo Ferguson, the first of three touchdowns for the junior.

After McKendree rattled off 17 straight points to build the 27-7 lead, Lincoln returned the favor, starting with a 25-yard field goal by Fernando Ramirez on the last play of the first half.

The Blue Tigers then opened the second half with a sharp 12-play, 75-yard drive, capped on Ferguson's four-yard run, to cut the lead to 27-16, before Saint Durassaint took center stage.

The linebacker, one of 14 seniors honored on Senior Day, finished the season as Lincoln's leader in both tackles and interceptions. His third pick of the season on McKendree's next possession resulted in a 49-yard return for a touchdown to pull the Blue Tigers within 27-24.

"That was a huge play," Smith said. "He's done a great job for us, I appreciate everything's he done for us the last two years, both his leadership and his play on the field.

"The seniors last year laid the foundation for this year, and these seniors laid the foundation for what we've got to do next year."

The Bearcats fired back with touchdowns on their next two possessions to open the lead back up to 41-24 with 14 minutes left. But once again, the Blue Tigers stayed in the conversation with a nine-play, 86-yard march that was finished off by Ferguson's third score of the game, this one his second from five yards.

"We were right in the ball game," Smith said.

Then came the back-breaking moment on one of the goofiest plays you'll ever see.

With five minutes left, Lincoln's Garen McKinney blocked Lazaro's short field goal attempt. McKinney also recovered it, but then the fire drill started --- the overly excited Blue Tigers started throwing the ball all over the field, including forward passes.

The last of those was a forward pass from the end zone --- that's a penalty, that's a safety, it 43-32 and McKendree got the ball back on the free kick.
And that would be that.

"We just made a dumb play," Smith said, "that was the big key in the second half. We should have run it up the sidelines and got out of bounds and let the offense have the ball.

"Our offense had been doing a good job of moving the ball all day, we should have given it back to them. Instead, we make a dumb play."

Still, the Blue Tigers certainly seem to be trending in the right direction. When's the last time they had a legitimate chance to finish a season with six or seven wins?

I don't know, either.

"We're definitely making progress, but we've still got a lot of work to do," said Smith, who's flying out Monday morning on a recruiting swing through Texas and Illinois. "We've got to continue to get the right type of players in here and continue to move forward.

"We are progressing, but we're not where we need to be. We've got to make sure we keep moving forward and we're not staying the same."

Good goal, but there's also some (possibly) bad news --- they could be better next season and not win three times, as Saturday's game was Lincoln's last in the GLVC. Next season, the Blue Tigers are returning to the more powerful MIAA.

Nobody ever said it would be easy.

Loeffler's Link

McKendree running back Jace Franklin (2) can't shake tackle of Lincoln's Isaiah Gray during the fourth quarter of Saturday's game at Reed Stadium.

McKendree denies Lincoln its
first four-win season since 2003