Lincoln Prep’s running game too much for Northeast

Lincoln Prep controlled the football for most of the evening, and the result was a 28-14 victory over Northeast in an Interscholastic League showdown.

Northeast, though, was not without a few fireworks.

On a balmy Friday night, slow and steady was the way to go for the Blue Tigers.

Lincoln Prep’s Jabari Hopson ran for 72 yards and two touchdowns. Colandus Rucker added 94 yards and a touchdown. They were the biggest pieces of a Blue Tigers’ offense that held onto the football most all of the night.

“We’re pretty balanced. Last year, Jabari ran for 900 yards and Rucker ran for 1,000. They’re both seniors, so we’ve got good balance there,” Lincoln Prep coach Henry Newell said. “We controlled the game. We dominated the offensive line for the most part all game.”

Hopson and Rucker had ample opportunity to grind down Northeast’s defense.

“We try to switch it up with handoffs to each other. We complement each other,” Hopson said.

Rucker agreed.

“We came out with some intensity on the offensive end. We had some careless mistakes and we need to clean that up, but overall we ran hard,” Rucker said.

Northeast senior running back Desmond Walker also racked up some yardage — not to mention distance. He finished with 214 yards on 11 carries, including touchdown runs of 48 and 97 yards.

The problem for Northeast was that Walker wasn’t able to run that often.

“My running back finally came back this week, and we know what he can do, Northeast coach Terry McCray said. “He’s just got to stay healthy. He was in and out, but he still had a good game. When he’s in there, he can change the complexion of the game. When he’s not, we’re in trouble. He’s been out four weeks with an ankle. He played a little last week, and really played today.”

Walker made it interesting in the last five minutes, when he outraced everyone up the left sideline for the 97-yard score.

Northeast simply wasn’t able to come up with the two scores it needed after that to tie the game.

Lincoln Prep, 4-2, improved to 3-0 in the Interscholastic League. The Blue Tigers are the league’s defending champions, and they’ve put themselves in prime position to repeat.

“We expect to win the IL. We won last year and if we didn’t win this year, we’d be surprised. We’ve still go to play Central in a few weeks,” Newell said.

Still, the Blue Tigers are taking nothing for granted.

“Nothing is given to us. We have to come out and work. Our work will match everything else. If we come out here and work for it, we’re going to get it,” Rucker said.

This story was originally published September 26, 2014 at 11:10 PM with the headline "Lincoln Prep’s running game too much for Northeast."