Imhotep stuns Lincoln with late score to win the Public League 6A title
Tagged under: District 12, News, pfn, Playoffs
Anthony Franklin | November 11, 2024
Imhotep came into the Public League championship game as heavy favorites against the defending 6A champs Lincoln. During their regular season matchup Tep won going away 35-6. In the first matchup Lincoln was still figuring out their starting lineups on both side of the ball and awaiting eligibility for key players. With both teams almost at full strength they left fans with a classic title game that will be talked about for years to come.
Tep would receive the ball first and the returner hesitated grabbing what was a short kick. A Lincoln player would pounce on the ball and Lincoln would get a big break getting the ball inside the Tep 30-yard line. On their first play from scrimmage star athlete Ziyyon Bredell (Syracuse) would run and dash to the endzone to give the Railsplitters an early shocking 7-0 lead over Imhotep. On the ensuing drive Tep would look to stall with a great pass breakup by Lincoln Jr. DB Jamir Duncan however a roughing the passer call against Lincoln would give Tep a fresh set of downs where Penn State commit Sr. RB Jabree Coleman would go to work running the ball helping Tep get down inside the 5-yard line and on 2nd down So. QB Joe McCleish would run untouched into the endzone on a great RPO keeper. The extra point would sail right, and Lincoln would hold a slight 7-6 lead with 9:19 left in the 1st quarter. Lincoln would take over and drive down to the Tep 20-yard line before an errant throw yielded an interception for Tep So. DB Malik Drayton giving the Panthers the ball at their own 2-yard line. Lincoln would end up going 3 and out and punting. During the punt an Railsplitter was blocked into the Tep returner and while Lincoln recovered the ball returning it to the endzone the officials called a penalty giving Tep the ball deep in Lincoln territory. Tep would take advantage when Joe McCleish tossed a 3-yard touchdown pass to TE Micah Davis to take a 13-7 lead over Lincoln with 9:41 left in the first half. After a 3 and out for Lincoln Jabree would go to work again and cap the drive with a 5-yard touchdown run. The extra point would be partially blocked and the Tep lead expanded to 19-7. Lincoln would have another attempt at possibly scoring before the half but an errant throw lead to the 2nd interception for Malik Drayton and Tep would take an 19-7 lead at the half.
The second half would feature multiple scores for both teams. Lincoln would ground and pound the ball with Sr. RB David Akupuru who would finish the game with over 100 yards on the ground setting up a great catch by Sr. WR Joseph Gonzalez resulting in a touchdown score to get the Railsplitters back into the game cutting the lead to 19-14. The ensuing drive saw Jabree Coleman gain a couple of first downs and Tep looked to be driving to score once again when a Lincoln defender forced a fumble by Jabree that was recovered by Jr. DB Ty’sir Jones. Lincoln would drive the field behind strong running from Jr. RB David Akpuru and QB Jordan Mahir setting them up with a 1st and goal where they’d ultimately get the go ahead score when David ran it in from 7 yards out to give Lincoln a slim 20-19 lead with 3:08 left in the 3rd quarter. Tep would respond immediately with a heavy dosage of Jabree Coleman and Joe McCleish on the ground. Tep looked like they recaptured the lead on a Jabree rushing attempt however the officials ruled he fumbled before crossing the goal line and resulted in a touchback. The Tep defense would lock in and down on the Lincoln offense forcing them to punt deep from their own territory and the ensuing punt would be very short after bouncing off a Tep players helmet giving Tep the ball back at the Lincoln 33-yard line where they’d take advantage and ultimately score a field goal to take a 22-20 lead with 4:38 left in the 4th quarter. Lincoln would power down the field behind David Akpuru rushing to get in scoring position where Jordan would find Ziyyon Bredell again on a busted play for a 24-yard touchdown to take a 26-22 lead with 2:59 left in regulation. Lincoln would miss the conversion attempt and Tep would have life.
Tep would start from their own 25-yard line with 3 timeouts at their disposal and went to work as Joe McLeish would find Zaire Pollard for a 12-yard pass completion before Azim Mathis would break through the line to force an incompletion. On 3rd and 11 the pass Joe fired would be incomplete and Tep on 4th down would call a pass play that fell short by 5 yards at mid field. Lincoln would take over with 1:28 left in regulation at midfield and the Tep defense would buckle down in their run defense on 1st and 2nd down. They’d use 2 of their timeouts after both downs. On 3rd and 10 Lincoln opted to pass the ball rather than force the Panthers to use their final timeout before punting on 4th down with 1:03 left in regulation. Malik Drayton would get a block and give the Panthers new life as they got the ball at the Lincoln 19-yard line with 0:55 left on the clock. After a few rushing attempts by Jabree the Panthers would cash in with no time left on the clock on a Joe McLeish QB sneak to walk off as Public League 6A champions.
Tep’s Jabree Coleman would finish the game with over 150 rushing yards and a touchdown while Malik Drayton would finish with 2 game changing interceptions and a punt block that ultimately led to the Tep victory. Malik noted that despite many forecasting a blowout win for Tep that the Tep players or coaches knew going into the game “It’s always harder to beat a good team like Lincoln twice and we never play down to our opponent”. With regards to his interceptions, he noted “I really just trust my technique and being in the right place at the right moment to make a play on the ball”. Despite being down very late in the 4th quarter Tep remained composed, didn’t get frazzled and Malik mentioned “My team is always prepared for situations like this in practice, so it really just translated towards the game, and we kept our focus on winning this game”. With regards to the big showdown with SJ Prep this upcoming Saturday looking to advance to the state title game he simply said, “We’ll just keep doing what we have been doing, which is working hard, taking one game at a time and we’ll get a step closer game by game to repeating as state champions”.
Saturday afternoon Imhotep will host St. Joes Prep in the District 12 6A finals with a trip to the PIAA 6A Quarterfinals on the line. SJ Prep is the 2x defending 6A champion while Tep is the defending 5A champion. Both teams feature sophomore stud QB’s who will make their first career city title game appearance and should be a very competitive and physical game.
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