7A State Title Game Lincoln vs St Thomas Aquinas

High scoring high flash affair is what you got out of the Lincoln Trojans and St Thomas Aquinas Raiders.  Lincoln lived by the defense all year but pressed early in the game to make plays they opened up there offense and matched STA in points in the 1^st half.  St Thomas and Lincoln were both in tough battles the previous week and this one would be no different.  Many thought this would be a blowout game going away for Aquinas and for a while it looked as if that would be the case for a while but Lincoln came through and fought back fiercely to make this a very competitive and exciting game until STA was able to pull away late winning 41-25.

On the opening kickoff the Trojans shell shocked the Raiders as Jon Burt took a deep kickoff and raced across the field breaking tackles along the way for a 95 yard Kickoff return for a TD.  After missing the extra point the Trojans were able to corral John O’Korn and Fred Coppet on their 1^st drive but that would not last long.  After a couple of change of possessions STA QB John O’Korn ran a perfect read option play and fooled the Trojans as he raced 51 yards for a TD and put STA ahead 7-6.  On their next possession John O’Korn got on a hot streak and connected with Corey Holmes for a 80 yard TD pass followed by a 71 yard TD pass to Mark Barr.  At that point the Raiders led 21-6 and it appeared that the route was on as Lincoln had no answer defensively for STA.

After some key halftime adjustments Lincoln came out in the 3^rd quarter and mounted a comeback, scoring the 1^st 2 scores of the half.  The 1^st 2 was a 15 play 68 yard drive which ended in a 1 yard TD plunge by Cameron Joseph.  Next after slowing down the Raider offense QB Cameron Joseph connected with Taj Williams for a 50 yard TD pass as he got behind the coverage much like STA WR’s had done in the 1^st half to pull to 21-19 before STA added a field goal to end the 3^rd quarter to make it 24-19.

The 4^th quarter belonged to STA.  They held a slim 24-19 lead until 4 minutes into the 4^th after a long 11 play drive which O’Korn capped off with a 3 yard run to make the score 31-19 as the game began to get away from Lincoln with only 8 minutes remaining.  After a Lincoln turnover STA added a 27 yard field goal.  Lincoln drove deep into STA territory but failed on 4^th down.  A few plays later Fred Coppet (22 155 1TD) took a counter out of the wishbone 40 yards to ice the game.  Lincoln would add one more score but it was too little way too late.

Players of the game for STA would be none other than John O’Korn who accounted for 435 total yards and 4TD’s (11-26 339 2TD, 10 car 96 yard 2TD) and Fred Coppet.  Not to be outdone his WR’s Corey Holmes (4 167 1TD) and Mark Barr (4 132 1TD).  For Lincoln Cameon Joseph was the player of the game.  He accounted for 206 yards of offense with 15-22 170 2TD’s and 12 car 36yd and 1TD.