ELKINS — Two defensive scores in a 20-second span Friday night propelled the Elkins Elks to a 28-14 win over the Lincoln Wolves. The Wolves led 14-7 at the half but a trio of thirdquarter touchdowns swung the momentum and Lincoln never recovered.

After the Elks tied the game at 14, Zack Parker took the ball away from Lincoln running back Bao Nguyen and sprinted 12 yards for the score and a 21-14 Elkins lead. Following the kickoff, the Elkins defense struck fast once again. Jacob Evans stepped in front of a Lincoln receiver, picked off Zach Summers and rurned it 32 yards for a touchdown.

"Those two plays were huge. I talked to the kids at halftime about momentum. In all sports momentum is so huge and I told them we've got to make a play or two to change the momentum of this game," Elkins coach Aaron Clark said.

Late in the fourth quarter, the game was delayed due to an injury to Lincoln's Dustin Simmons.

He was immobilized on a stretcher, but Lincoln coach Brad Harris said it was tionary and Simmons should be fine.

"He just got his head rocked back pretty good and blacked out for a couple of minutes. Everything was fine. He wanted to get up," Harris said.

The Elks did little to stop Lincoln's offense in the early going. The Wolves put together a 16-play, 55-yard drive on their firstpossession. Ezquiel Hernandez carried the rock eight times, including a 1-yard dive to put the Wolves up 7-0 with just seconds remaining in the opening quarter.

Elkins (2-2, 1-1 1-3A) answered early in the second, going 75 yards. The final five yards came on a pass from Robert Teague to Hunter Guffey and the score was knotted at 7.

Guffey ended a Lincoln threat with an interception but two-plays later, Guffey had the ball stripped after a 50-yard reception and Lincoln was back in business.

Precision passing from Summers moved the chains and with eight seconds remaining in the half, Summers hit Alfonso Cruz for a fouryard touchdownand the Wolves took a 14-7 lead into the half.

Lincoln (1-4, 0-2 1-3A) continued to march down the field early in the third, but the Elks' defense bowed up and stuffed Simmons on a fourth-and-one at Elkins' 31. The Wolves earned just three more first downs the rest of the way.

"It was a tale of two halves for us," Harris said.

"Offensively in the first half I thought we played as well as we've played all year but Elkins turned it up a little bit on defense and we crumbled. We just didn't get it done." Elkins tied the game at the 5:46 mark of the third quarter after Pedro Puente's 7-yard run finished up a seven-play, 69-yard march, and the Elks' defense took over from there.

"We really hadn't stopped them in the first half but I think our young defense grew up a little bit in the second half. But [Lincoln] is a young team too. They're a solid ball club." Clark said.

Elkins had 282 yards of total offense, with Teague leading the way with 83 rushing yards. Puente added 80 yards for the Elks. Lincoln had 256 yards, with 172 coming from Summers' arm. He was 14-of-19 but suffered three interceptions, two going to Guffey. Nguyen led Lincoln's ground game with 43 yards.

Up next for Elkins is a trip to Mansfield while Lincoln travels to Lavaca.

Sports, Pages 6, 10 on 10/08/2009

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