The Lincoln East Spartan football team began their postseason trek with a resounding 42-0 win against an upset driven North Platte Bulldogs team last Friday on a beautiful day at Seacrest Field in Lincoln, Nebraska.
In a rematch of a game played just three weeks prior at the same field, that resulted in a 21-7 Spartan win, East started out fast but were held scoreless in the second half. Both teams were without key players as the Bulldogs were without top running back Cody Wright and the Spartans were without deep threat Carter Glenn, who was still nursing a labrum injury in his left shoulder.
But that all changed for the Spartans’ first playoff game, as Glenn returned, along with Wright, for the Bulldogs who were coming off a win over Lincoln High in the first round where he rushed for 153 yards in a 33-13 win. Stopping Wright was a key for the Spartan defense, and they were able to do just that. Wright was held to 67 yards on 18 carries, that’s only 3.8 yards a carry. The East defense stepped up throughout the game as they pitched a shutout and forced 3 Bulldog turnovers, all in the first half to put the game out of reach.
But the defense wasn’t the only effective group, the Spartan air attack was efficient all day as they put up 42 in the game and 28 alone in the 2nd quarter, thanks to a variety of players. The scoring was initiated on an 18 yard pass from junior Noah Walters to senior Carter Glenn for his first reception back from injury, and his 9th touchdown of the season. Then East got tricky, a 26 yard pass from halfback Grant Springer to Cooper Erickson extended the Spartan lead. But East wasn’t done yet as they converted touchdowns three more times in the first half thanks to touchdowns from Austin Schneider, another touchdown reception from Carter Glenn and a two yard run from Kyle Caulfield put the game out of reach as the Spartans led 35-0 at halftime thanks to a great gameplan from Coach John Gingery.
“We had extra time to prepare for a game plan against a team that we’d already faced,” senior wide receiver Brayan Van Meter said. That helped the coaching staff and team fix what went wrong in the previous matchup and correct any holes that may have occurred last time.
The Spartans will have a tough test Friday, November 6th at Omaha Westside for a 2nd round matchup in Omaha. The Warriors are 9-0, the 2nd overall seed and coming off a 45-3 win over Grand Island to advance to play East.
“As a team, we have been watching many of the Westside games and they clearly have a loaded defense,” Van Meter said. “We just need to go into the game knowing we have nothing to lose and find ways to beat their defense.”
Senior linebacker Quentin Adams agrees, “at first glance, they have a lot of athletes. I feel like if we play like we did against North Platte we should be fine.” East looks forward to the test on Friday for a chance to advance to the semifinals.