Despite losing key players to graduation last year, Lincoln Christian showed from the start why it is atop Class 3A as it dominated sixth-ranked Victory Christian in a one-sided 56-0 shutout Friday night.
“You never know how things are going to go in the first game,” Lincoln Christian coach Jerry Ricke said. “You got a new quarterback, you've got some different offensive linemen, you got some different guys in the secondary. You don't know how they're gonna react.
“We had a really good week of practice,” Jerry Ricke said. “A really good week of preparation. Our guys expect to be in the mix every game and every year, and we have a lot of guys coming back that played in some big-time games last year, and so we relied on them, and they helped us get it going. We're really proud to get come out here tonight.”
The defending 3A state champions scored every time they touched the ball in the first half. The defense neutralized Conqueror running backs and got recorded a few sacks of senior quarterbacks Jacob Earnhardt and Allen Thompson.
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“We kind of thought we'd hang our hat on our defense this year. We have a bunch of those guys coming back from last year's squad, and we're experienced upfront. We're experienced at the linebacker level,” Jerry Ricke said.
“Overall, we preach negative plays and put them behind the sticks, and our guys did a great job. Obviously, when you put a zero up on the board, your guys did a really good job. Proud of coach (Jeff) Comfort, our defensive coordinator. He had his guys ready to go. Our defensive staff had them ready to go.”
On the Bulldogs’ first possession, junior quarterback Carter Ricke tossed a short pass to senior fullback Dawson Fullingim, who sprinted 71 yards to the end zone.
The ensuing PAT by junior Cooper Housley made it 7-0 with 8:44 left in the first quarter.
“What we did is we faked the stretch play to (freshman) C.J. Wright, one of our guys that runs that play really well,” Jerry Ricke said. “And we faked that through, had a throwback screen, and we were kind of hoping that they would bite on it, which they did in our offensive line, did a really good job setting up a wall, not holding because you can get into a situation where you want to hold on that play, but they built the wall, and Dawson did finish it off, and he scored right there at the end. They were at the goal line with him, but he did a good job punching it in.”
Victory (0-1) tried to answer with a time-consuming drive that took nearly six minutes. Aided by a pair of pass interference calls on the Bulldogs (1-0), the Conquerors reached the Lincoln 25-yard line.
A sack for a loss of five yards, an incomplete pass, followed by a sack for a loss of 10 and an intentional grounding call, resulted in a 4th-and-30 for Victory from the Lincoln 45.
Victory still went for it as Earnhart passed to Dallas Dyer, which gained 16 yards before being pushed out of bounds.
It would be the first of four missed fourth-down conversions for the Conquerors in the game.
Lincoln then put together a drive that lasted over five minutes, carrying it over into the second quarter and capping it with Carter Ricke’s second TD pass, a 14-yarder to junior Hudson Farris.
Carter Ricke, son of head coach Jerry Ricke, finished the game with four touchdown passes and another on the ground.
The rout was on as Farris would add a TD run of 18 yards after Victory turned the ball over on downs a second time. That made it a 21-0 game.
Carter Ricke threw his third TD of the night with 1:36 left in the first half to sophom*ore Braeden Baker from 44 yards. An interception by senior linebacker Mason Torres taken to from midfield to the Conqueror 30-yard line would set up a 10-yard TD by Ricke on the quarterback keeper with 55 seconds left.
It was 35-0 at halftime.
Getting the ball first to start the second half, Carter Ricke led the Bulldogs to another TD drive as he threw a 30-yard TD to senior Kylan Schultheis and it was 42-0.
After the Bulldogs forced Victory to punt, the Conquerors got one of their bright moments when senior linebacker Cooper Howell picked off a pass and took it to the Lincoln 28. But Victory was unable to capitalize against the Bulldog defense, getting negative-one yard and turning it over on downs on an incomplete pass.
Lincoln took over and scored again, this on a 37- yard run by Wright.
Backup quarterback and senior Titan Price scored the last TD from five yards in the fourth quarter.
LINCOLN CHRISTIAN 56, VICTORY CHRISTIAN 0
Lincoln Christian; 7: 28; 14; 7 – 56
Victory Christian; 0;0;0;0; – 0
LC: Fullingim 71 pass from Ricke (Housley kick)
LC: Farris 14 pass from Ricke (Housley kick)
LC: Farris 18 run (Housely kick)
LC: Baker 44 pass from Ricke (Housley kick)
LC: Ricke 10 run (Housley kick)
LC: Schultheis 30 pass from Ricke (Housley kick)
LC: Wright 37 run (Housley kick)
LC: Price 5 run (Housley kick)
TEAM STATISTICS
First Downs — LC 17, VC 7; Rushes-Yards LC 33-323, VC 27-47; Comp-Att-Int — 7-11-1, VC 9-21-1. Passing Yards — LC 145, VC 82. Fumbles-Lost — LC 0-0, VC 0-0. Penalty Yards — LC 9-86, VC 7-26. Total Yards — LC 478, VC 129. Punts-Avg. — LC 0-0.0, VC 4-37.3.
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