Big second half sends Lincoln past Northeastern State

Lincoln defenders look at the ball after a hard hit on Northeastern State wide receiver Mark Wheeland jarred it loose Saturday at Dwight T. Reed Stadium. The pass was ruled incomplete.
Lincoln defenders look at the ball after a hard hit on Northeastern State wide receiver Mark Wheeland jarred it loose Saturday at Dwight T. Reed Stadium. The pass was ruled incomplete.

Lincoln interim head coach Malik Hoskins had been waiting to see it all season, and it finally happened Saturday afternoon at Dwight T. Reed Stadium.

Not just a victory, but a strong second half performance by the Blue Tigers.

Running back Hosea Franklin rushed for 205 yards, the offense scored two touchdowns on fourth-and-goal and Cody Alexander had an interception return for a touchdown in Lincoln's 27-9 Homecoming win against the Northeastern State RiverHawks.

Saturday was Lincoln's first Homecoming win since 2014, and it snapped the Blue Tigers' nine-game losing streak.

"It feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders," Hoskins said after winning his first game as Lincoln's interim head coach. "We talked about the (team) that came out and delivered the first blow was going to have the upper hand. How would the other team respond?

"We delivered a blow, they came back and responded. We got bug-eyed in the first half, but we made some adjustments at halftime."

Lincoln trailed 7-6 at halftime, and the first half ended in a crushing fashion. The Blue Tigers were having their best offensive series of the half, and with :17 left, Franklin took a pitch and ran it 4 yards to the Northeastern State 1-yard line.

But Franklin stayed in the middle of the field, and the Blue Tigers were out of timeouts. The clock hit all zeroes before the Lincoln offense could line up and take another snap for a scoring opportunity.

"I put it on my coaching," Hoskins said. "I shouldn't have burned all my timeouts in the first half like that, and we would've had a timeout at the end."

Lincoln finished with 112 yards of offense in the first half, compared to 198 for Northeastern State. The second half has been the weaker of the two halves this season for the Blues Tigers, who averaged just 4.5 points in the second half through their first six games.

But on Saturday, the second half was Lincoln's better half.

The Blue Tigers received the opening kick in the third quarter, and Franklin's 53-yard carry put Lincoln at the Northeastern State 4-yard line. After coming up short of the end zone on three straight plays, Chancellor Johnson dumped a 2-yard touchdown pass to Franklin on fourth down. Javier Moreno's extra point gave Lincoln a 13-7 lead with 11:48 left in the quarter.

Hoskins said it wasn't a tough decision to go for it on fourth down, rather than kicking a field goal.

"We knew we had to do something," he said. "We had to do something to give the team life. I just feel like going for it was the only thing I could do."

The Lincoln defense answered with a three-and-out, and the offense took advantage of starting its next drive in Northeastern State territory.

Facing another fourth-and-goal at the 2, this time Johnson pitched the ball to Franklin, who absorbed a hit from the RiverHawks' Ashton Antwine at the 1-yard line and pushed past him and into the end zone with 6:16 to go in the third. His fourth rushing touchdown of the season extended Lincoln's lead to 20-7.

Northeastern State's Elijah Wallace tackled Franklin in the end zone for a safety on Lincoln's next possession toward the end of the third quarter. Those two points were the RiverHawks' final points of the game.

Early in the fourth quarter, Northeastern State drove into Lincoln territory, but the Blue Tigers came up with another third-down stop and benefited from a RiverHawks' unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, leading to a punt.

Northeastern State finished with just 61 yards of offense after halftime.

"It's all predicated on what the offense is doing," Hoskins said. "If the offense is doing well, the defense has life."

Meanwhile, Franklin used a 30-yard run to set up the Blue Tigers' final touchdown. Johnson, who is 6-foot-6, took the snap and reached with the ball over Lincoln's offensive line for a 1-yard score with 3:50 to play, providing the Blue Tigers with an insurance score.

Hoskins had intended to bench Johnson for Saturday's game and go with Desmond Howard at quarterback, but he changed his mind Friday and stuck with Johnson, who finished with 13 carries for 76 yards.

"He responded," Hoskins said. "He was a little complacent earlier, but once he got going, he responded very well."

Lincoln finished the game with 310 yards rushing, with 217 of those yards coming in the second half.

"They were putting seven in the box, and they were attacking our downhill runs," Hoskins said of Northeastern State's defense in the first half. "We started going lateral, which they were susceptible outside because they had everything packed inside. Once we got the lateral run game going, it opened up the middle a little bit more."

Lincoln opened the scoring early in the second quarter when Alexander intercepted a pass from Northeastern State quarterback Jacob Medrano. The Blair Oaks graduate returned the pick 81 yards for a touchdown, the second defensive score of his collegiate career. That put the Blue Tigers ahead 6-0 with 10:17 to go in the first half.

It was the only takeaway of the game for either team.

After coming up empty on that 11-play drive, Northeastern State responded with an 11-play, 67-yard drive that ended with a 5-yard touchdown run by Kevin Johnson. That gave the RiverHawks their only lead of the game at 7-6 with 4:34 remaining in the half.

Chavon Gross led Lincoln's defense with seven tackles, while JaJuan Chambers added three tackles for loss.

Northeastern State (0-7) has now lost its last 20 games, and the Blue Tigers take a 2-1 lead in the all-time series.

Lincoln (1-6) plays next Saturday at seventh-ranked Northwest Missouri. Kickoff is at 2 p.m. in Maryville.

Northwest Missouri (6-1) suffered its first loss of the season Saturday, falling 24-17 on the road to Nebraska-Kearney. No. 14 Central Missouri is alone atop the MIAA standings with a 7-0 record.