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Sports |
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HEARTBREAKER, DREAM TAKER Cummings stuns Wolves with last-second field goal TERRANCE THOMAS, LTN Staff Writer Dec. 10 - BURLINGTON — “It heart deep inside,” said Lincolnton defensive lineman Joey Beal. “It was like someone took something from you and there’s nothing you can do about it.” The Lincolnton Wolves had held the powerful Cummings offense to no points and one first down (that one came by a penalty) in for more 23 minutes of the second half in the 2A state semifinals. The Wolves had control and it looked as if the 14-14 game was going in overtime. A trip to Chapel Hill for state championship game, which was a dream early in the season, was coming into shape. Lincolnton punted with 22 seconds left to play and Cummings took over at its 35. Two plays later quarterback Drew Williamson fired the ball deep downfield to receiver Michael Enzlow who got ahead of the Wolves’ secondary to pull down the 55-yard pass. With two seconds left, sophomore kicker Sebastian Olivares drilled a 28-yard field goal for the Cummings win. The Cavaliers cheered and celebrated and held up Chapel Hill signs. Some had tears of joy. Under the goal post where the kick went through, the Lincolnton players were on the ground and fans stood, all silent, all stunned, all heartbroken with hopes and dreams stripped away. Most of them cried, there was no joy. “This is got to be the worst feeling in their lives,” said Lincolnton coach Scott Cloninger said about his players. We fell a little short. The seniors had a good run.” Beal said the world stood still after Enzlow made the catch. “Everything stopped when he caught that ball,” he said. “There was no sound. Our season is down the drain. It hurts. We had a real good team.” The game featured an explosive Cummings team that scored 60 or more points twice in the playoffs this a season. The Cavaliers won 13 games by at least 20 points and scored at least 20 points in all of their games. But the Wolves kept the Cavaliers scoreless in the first quarter and looked to take the lead when they had first and goal at the 10. The Wolves ran four plays but couldn’t get in. Cummings took over at the 1 and dissected the Wolves defense for a 99-yard drive, The Cavaliers scored on a double pass play. Williamson threw a lateral to Bryan Manning who hit a wide-open Mike Hinton for a 21 yard TD pass. Cummings had another chance to score midway in the second quarter. The Cavaliers were inside the 20 but the Wolves linebacker Bradley Armstrong stripped the ball out of halfback Andre Gray’s hands. A holding penalty put the Wolves back to their own 11. Then a couple of plays later Andre Nixon got the handoff on a counter play that fooled the Cavaliers, hit the left sideline and turned on turbo speed to race 90 yards for the touchdown. The Cavaliers responded quickly. They marched down the field with passes and runs. Williamson, who finished 17-of-25 with 260 yards, picked the Wolves defense apart on the drive. With less than a minute left he connected with Manning for 29-yard TD pass. Manning had an exceptional day. The hard-to-stop receiver caught nine passes for 132 yards for the game. Nearly all of the second half belonged to the Wolves. The Wolves made adjustments and the defense held Cummings to just 24 yards before the long pass at the end. Meanwhile, the Lincolnton offense was getting good opportunities. The Wolves had first-and-10 at Cummings 48, at Cummings 26 in the third quarter but finally scored after starting a drive from its own 10. It was late in the quarter, Armstrong broke through the middle for a 58-yard run. But when it seemed another drive would end, quarterback William Lineberger looped a pass to wideout Rafael Corella (who finished with four catches for 102 yards) who ran it in for a 30-yard play for paydirt. It was 14-14. The Wolves had another good drive in the fourth quarter. They converted a dangerous fourth-and-1 from their own 28 to keep the drive going. However, with the ball at Cummings’ 30, Lineberger threw an interception. The Wolves got the ball back with 1:31 at their own 32. They seemed to settle for running out the clock and settle for overtime. But Cummings had all three timeouts left. The Cavaliers used one to stop the clock at 35 seconds on third down and quickly called another after the Wolves lost seven yards on third down. With 30 ticks left Lincolnton punted and the Cavaliers got the ball at their 35 with 22 seconds after a clipping penalty. After an incomplete pass, 17 seconds left. Then the Cavaliers lineup with two receivers on the right and two on the left. The Wolves countered with man-to-man coverage and a man playing deep centerfield about 25 yards off the ball. The two receivers ran a crossing route on the left. Enzlow, the inside receiver, broke away on the left sideline and pulled in the pass. Lincolnton called two timeouts to give Olivares a little more time to think about the kick. But that ploy and rushing defense couldn’t stop the kick from going through. 17-14 with two seconds left. Lincolnton tried to keep the ball alive after the kickoff but couldn’t do it. A great season came to an end. “It hurts in the heart,” said Corella who played in his last high school game in a Wolves uniform along with 11 other seniors. “Turnovers killed us. (We had) penalties, fourth and goal at the goal line. I think we would have beaten them.”
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© 2001 Lincoln Times-News |
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