The Leon Lions remained undefeated Friday night, improving to 7-0 with a dramatic double-overtime victory over the Lincoln Trojans that ended a 27-year losing streak against their longtime rival.<\/p>\n
The Lions and Trojans traded momentum throughout a back-and-forth contest, with defensive stops, special teams plays and late-game heroics setting up a finish that came down to the final possession of the second overtime.<\/p>\n
Leon struck first, scoring on its opening drive with a 20-yard touchdown pass to Markeith Buggs to take a 7-0 lead. The Lions leaned heavily on their running game early, but Lincoln\u2019s special teams provided an opportunity to respond when the Trojans blocked a punt with 3:26 remaining in the first quarter.<\/p>\n
Lincoln capitalized on the favorable field position with a touchdown pass to Andreas Green, tying the game at 7-7 with 1:54 left in the quarter.<\/p>\n
The Trojans took control of the momentum early in the second quarter after recovering a fumble in Leon territory. Lincoln converted the turnover into another touchdown, with Andreas Green scoring on a direct snap. Barron Burris added the extra point to give the Trojans a 14-7 lead.<\/p>\n
Leon responded with a field goal after penalties stalled its drive, cutting the deficit to 14-10. The Lions then made one of the game\u2019s biggest defensive plays when Devin Colson returned an interception for a touchdown with a minute remaining in the first half, putting Leon back in front, 17-14.<\/p>\n
Lincoln answered before halftime, as Barron Burris connected on a 48-yard field goal to send the teams into the break tied at 17-17.<\/p>\n
The defensive battle continued after halftime. Lincoln put together a lengthy opening drive of the second half but was stopped on fourth down at Leon\u2019s 1-yard line, giving the Lions possession after a critical goal-line stand.<\/p>\n
The Trojans eventually broke through late in the third quarter. Jayden Wells scored on a 2-yard run with 26 seconds remaining in the period to put Lincoln ahead 24-17.<\/p>\n
Leon answered with another touchdown pass to Markeith Buggs, tying the game at 24 and setting up a tense fourth quarter.<\/p>\n
With five minutes remaining, Leon\u2019s special teams blocked a crucial Lincoln field goal attempt to preserve the tie. The Lions later converted a critical fourth down with a minute left, keeping their hopes of a game-winning score alive.<\/p>\n
Leon appeared to have one final opportunity to win in regulation, but a field goal attempt came up short with one second remaining. The game headed to overtime with the score still tied at 24.<\/p>\n
Lincoln scored a touchdown on its first overtime possession, putting the pressure on Leon to respond. After a face-mask penalty moved the Lions closer to the end zone, Leon quarterback Caleb Knipple scored on a quarterback sneak to even the game and force a second overtime.<\/p>\n
The Lions opened the second overtime with a 15-yard touchdown pass to Markeith Buggs in the end zone, giving Leon the lead and putting the pressure back on the Trojans.<\/p>\n
Lincoln had one final opportunity to extend the game, but Leon\u2019s defense had different plans. The Lions forced a fumble and Da\u2019Mon Murray recovered it, securing the victory and bringing an end to the program\u2019s 27-year losing streak against Lincoln.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Leon Lions remained undefeated Friday night, improving to 7-0 with a dramatic double-overtime victory over the Lincoln…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-430546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}