D12 Philadelphia 6A Title Game Preview: Northeast v Lincoln

Tagged under: District 12, News, Playoffs

Anthony Franklin | November 9, 2022

Abraham Lincoln v Northeast High: 12pm @ Northeast Supersite:

Lincoln: The Railsplitters earned their first title game berth since 1979 via their 8-0 win over Olney Charter. In a game that featured plenty of turnovers and penalties the RailSplitters found a way to pull out the win. They are led by HC Hakim Cooper who is an alumni and former player so making it to the championship game holds a dear spot in his heart. Back in the 90’s through the 2004 seasons the Public League had 20 teams playing football and it was divided into geographical regions and labeled A-D. In Division A was George Washington, Northeast, Frankford, Lincoln & Olney. With this set up the top 2 teams in each division regardless of records would make the playoffs. Lincoln & Northeast would play yearly during this time frame with Northeast dominating the series winning all games played from 1996-2004. Upon entry into the PIAA the PL decided to reshape divisions based off historical finishing and placed Lincoln in a lower tiered division with schools like Overbrook, Ben Franklin, Olney, Southern, Edison and now distinct U-City. Lincoln under the leadership of Coach Cooper has seen better days the last few years and last year they advanced to the PL Semi-finals where they met Northeast and after briefly holding the lead they fell 36-16. Coach Cooper believes that the experience from that loss last year to Northeast will help in a form of motivation for the players who played in that game. He believes they’re more mentally prepared this go around as they played a very tough out of league schedule with Cedar Crest (Harrisburg, PA), Central Catholic (Pittsburgh, PA) and Haverford School. While they did lose all 3 games they were tested and battled in every game. Central Catholic at the time was ranked #2 in the state within the 6A classification and Lincoln was able to hold their own losing 35-22. Being an alumni and former player Coach Cooper knows that bringing a championship back to Rowland Street and to Lincoln High School Saturday afternoon would mean a lot to the entire Lincoln family & community. As for who he feels are the key contributor to their success he states that “It’s hard to really name as specific athlete as a key contributor as we play so much as a team and a family anyone’s day can be that day”.  As for players he feel recruiters need to pay more attention to he named the following players:

As for players he feels they should be getting recruitment attention, interest and offers Coach Cooper named QB Khani Knight, OT Dante Bibbs, RB Koyei Simmons-Greene, WR Darius Hill, RB/WR Roling Davis, SS/WR Nayshawn Corley, RB Terail Green, LB Dyrell Steele and DT Reginald Faison. The RailSplitters on offense will go as far as Khani leads them. He is the catalyst of the offense and has a rocket arm that is equally strong as well as accurate. With over 1800 passing yards & 27 TDs via the air this season he’s shown he can light the scoreboard up and put the team on his back while also trusting his capable receivers to make plays down field. Their interior DL is massive and does a good job at stopping the run so they’ll be more than up to the task for the multi facet Northeast offense.

Northeast: The Vikings have been regular participants in the 6A Public League championship the last few years and look to repeat as champs and take on the CL champion with hopes of finally advancing to Thanksgiving weekend. They’re led by HC Eric Clark who like Coach Cooper is also an alumnus and former player of the program he now heads. Coach Clark has a PL Coach of the year under his belt while also winning a PL title as HC. The 2020 season was cancelled so there were no PL playoffs. The Vikings offensively are led by a trio of RBs in Jr. Khamir Prescott, Sr. Andre Staley & Sr. James Bermudez. All three are unique as Prescott is the speedy, shifty back, Staley is deceivingly powerful and Bermudez is a jack of all trades back with taking passes in the flat to the house or gaining tough yards inside while breaking tackles for long gains. They’re led by second year starter Sr. QB Sabir Stevens who has helped the passing game progress through the season which opens the offense up. Along the line they’re led by mega tackle Sr. Naquil Betrand (Texas A&M recruit) and Sr. G Tasir Davis and outside they’re loaded with weapons such as Sr. James Owens & So. Christian Palmer. Defensively the strength lies along the line as they rotate many guys led by Temple commit DE Tyrese Whitaker, Sr. DE Ronnel Nukah (VT, PSU, Tennessee offers), Jr. DT Hamil Johnson & So. DL Lazaryus Tombs. The linebacking core is equally strong with Sr. Khadir Rowe leading the crew. In the secondary Sr. Rodney Benjamin roams the backfield with capable corners in Prescott and Saeem Skinner. Coach Clark stated that “over the last few games it seems to take us a few drives before we get going on both sides of the ball. I thought we still played very well in the first half defensively, it’s not too often you see a high school team with a field goal special teams unit as efficient as Central. Against most schools after giving up for a few series we could limit the opposing team to a long 4th down but that was not the case with Central’s ability to kick long field goals. That’s a great weapon for them and I’m proud we were able to make a field goal this season from a nice distance as well. Offensively we set the tone early as well and saw what worked in the first half and made adjustments during halftime so to go into halftime with any lead was good when we knew we could be so much better” regarding their dominant performance last week against Central in the semifinals.

When asked about his teams mindset heading into the championship game and being the reigning champion he stated “This team is used to being in this game and that’s very important to our preparation. This group understands the moment and never gets too high or too low. This is what’s expected from this group.” Having 2 capable QB’s with different skill sets has been a tremendous boost for the Vikings offense and Coach Clark believes “That was the goal from the beginning to take advantage of both QB strengths to make our offense explosive. Sabor is the starter, (our senior, our leader, our captain) along with our young QB Mahir we have faith in both of them to take care of the ball and make great decisions to win the game at any time. There have been multiple games where we needed great efforts from both QBs in the same game. Actually, against SCHA we needed both QBs on the same drive late in the second half. The best part is seeing them root for each other and pushing each other daily.” Coach also stated that Khamir Prescott is the best football player in the state of PA. He can play 4-5 positions on defense and 4-5 positions on offense. Our job is to see where he best fits game to game and that has changed week to week depending on the game plan, but he has come through every single time with big time plays on Offense, Defense and Special teams. He is closing in on being the all-time single season leading ALL- Purpose yards leader in Northeast High School Football history. That’s saying a lot with the rich football history we have here at NEHS and he’s only a junior”. When asked what fans can look forward to seeing from his Vikings on Saturday he simply stated “The show!!! They’ll play hard, play with passion and play for one another.”

Outlook: On paper Lincoln has the higher scoring offense while Northeast has the more stingy defense. A classic game looks to be in the making as Lincoln is a formidable challenger. They are confident in their ability to play with the better teams based off their performance against out of city competition and have athletes on both sides of the ball who at any given point can make a big play. Their QB is key in this game as he will determine how well they progress offensively. One key factor for the RailSplitters is they actually have a former Viking on the roster and that is TeRail Greene. TeRail left NE after last season for neighboring Lincoln and has familiarity with the Vikings players & staff to an extent. In similar fashion NE knows Greene’s tendencies and likes so that’ll be an interesting chess match.

Prediction: Northeast 30 Lincoln 21

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