Auburn Mountainview tops Lincoln 18-12 for first win under Spence | Prep Football

Published 11:57 am Saturday, September 18, 2010

The Auburn Mountainview Lions were good enough to fend off the Lincoln Abes, 18-12, Friday night in a nonleague game at Auburn Memorial Stadium.

It was the first victory of the season for the Lions and their first-year coach, Craig Spence.

“They played hard and they played within in the system,” Spence said. “They didn’t all try to make big plays.”

The Lions (1-2) held on through a rocky first half, heading into halftime trailing 10-6.

“I really talked to them before the game because we played two games where before the half we were out of it,” Spence said. “So I really talked to them about playing the first 24 minutes of the game. And I really felt that if we could get to halftime and it was still a game, we’d have a fighting chance.”

Victor Korchemniy scored first for the Lions in the second quarter on a 6-yard rush.

The Lions posted 12 points in the third quarter, with sophomore quarterback Domenic Rockey withstanding a blistering Abes pass rush to connect with receivers Darrell Robinson and Devin Bryant on touchdown passes of 21 and 19 yards, respectively.

Defensively, the Lions came up big, recovering three Lincoln fumbles in the game and standing firm against the Abes’ ground attack in the red zone. The team gave up just one touchdown in the game.

Lincoln’s other points in the game came courtesy of two safeties, suffered after bad snaps.

“Our kids played hard, our defense made plays,” Spence said. “They (Lincoln) are a good team. I think we might have caught them a little bit, but I saw them play twice and they are a really talented team, they took apart two really good teams. They’re a good team they play all out.”

After two tough losses, the win was rewarding for the young Lions.

“I don’t think we’ve turned the corner yet, but I think our kids are starting to think that if they work hard and care about each other that it will make a difference.”

Still, there is work to be done.

“There were a lot of ticky-tack penalties, a lot of penalties I haven’t heard of,” Spence said. “But we’ve got to study them. And we can’t give up two safeties.”

The Lions will look for win No. 2 at 7 p.m. this Friday against Bonney Lake at Sunset Chev Stadium in Sumner.

ELSEWHERE:The No. 1 ranked Trojans (3-0) rolled by Jefferson (1-3) 42-22 Friday night at Federal Way Stadium. Auburn posted 42 unanswered points in the first three quarters of the contest. Austin Embody ran for three touchdowns in his return from a shoulder injury and backfield partner Alphonse Wade added two rushing touchdowns. Quarterback Max Pratt added another rushing score. The Trojans will host Tahoma (1-2) at 7 p.m. Thursday at Auburn Memorial Stadium.