Hagerstown hands Lincoln 52-8 defeat 

There was a festive atmosphere Friday, Sept. 20, at Eagle Field for the Tri-Eastern Conference matchup between neighboring rivals Lincoln and Hagerstown. It was homecoming for Lincoln, but the visiting Tigers made themselves right at home with a 52-8 win. 

The teams jockeyed for field position in the early part of the first quarter before Tiger punter Anthony Kelley hit a booming kick that buried the Eagles deep at the nine-yard line and seemed to shift the momentum of the game. The Eagles could not move the ball, eventually punting the ball back to the Tigers. Aiden Grover scored on a 6-yard touchdown run at the 6:45 mark and scored again on a 15-yard run at 4:02. Tiger quarterback Kaagen Kendall threw a 19-yard pass to Roy Thornbury with 55 seconds remaining to extend the Hagerstown lead to 19-0 at the end of the first quarter. 

The Tigers continued to add to their lead in the second period while the Eagles continued to struggle. Kendall scored on an 11-yard QB keeper and Grover added two more rushing touchdowns — the first a 19-yard run, the second a 5-yard run with less than five seconds remaining in the first half — to increase the Tiger lead to 40-0 and trigger a running clock in the second half.  

Freshman speedster Jaxon Hale returned the second half kickoff 73 yards for a score to make the score 46-0. Playing reserves on offense, the Tigers added a 11-yard touchdown run from freshman Graham Vinson to make the score 52-0 with five minutes remaining in the game. The Eagles got on the scoreboard a minute later when Carson Hawk outran his defenders and gathered in a 69-yard pass from Noah Patterson for a touchdown. Patterson ran in the 2-point conversion to make the final score 52-8. 

Lincoln quarterback Noah Patterson completed four of 13 pass attempts for 85 yards and a touchdown. He was intercepted once. Hawk was the leading receiver with two catches for 74 yards and a touchdown. Patterson was also the leading rusher with 21 yards. As a team the Eagles only gained 32 yards rushing. It should be noted that key Eagle seniors Bear Ervin and Evan Stuckey did not play because of illness and injury. Jack Patton and Hawk each had 14 tackles, and Patterson was credited with 12 tackles. 

Kendall completed nine of 12 pass attempts for 102 yards and a touchdown. Seven different Tiger receivers caught passes in the game. Anthony Kelley was the leading receiver with two catches for 35 yards, and Issac Schmitz caught three passes for 27 yards. Grover rushed for 135 yards and four touchdowns on 16 carries. As a team, the Tigers gained 267 yards on the ground. Isaac Schmitz was the leading tackler for Hagerstown with 10. His brother Cale Schmitz had eight. Greydee DeGuira had nine tackles and a fumble recovery. Roy Thornbury had three sacks. Fletcher Callahan had an interception. 

Lincoln head coach Jeremy Bane said he understood that his kids ran out of steam, but he sees it as more than that.

“I think we get a little tired,” Bane said. “But, I also think we give up on ourselves a little early at times. We need to believe in ourselves. We do have a numbers issue and some illness and injury, but we need to play harder. We adjusted some things at halftime to try to give Noah (Patterson) better protection. I was disappointed with our early effort tonight. I do think we have some positives to build on.” 

Hagerstown head coach Scott Snodgrass said his team set the pace.

“They were a little slow to line up early so we sped up the tempo,” Snodgrass said. “That helped our kids focus and put pressure on them. We are getting better at the things we have worked on in practice and that carried over again tonight. The kids played well. Our line play is getting better. I have no complaints.”  

Hagerstown will host Shenandoah on Friday, Sept. 27, in a nonconference game. Lincoln will travel to Knightstown the same night for another Tri-Eastern Conference game. 

Hagerstown (3-2, 3-2 TEC)  19   21   6    6    52

Lincoln (1-4,1-4 TEC)             0     0   0    8      8