Defending state champion Lincoln gets defensive in Thanksgiving Day win

"It's not about style points," he told his team, holding back tears. "It's about being a program. It's about being a brotherhood." Fitting for Ferrigno was that the game's lone touchdown — the play of the game — was scored by a player not on the program last year, and who had been struggling off the field earlier this month.

Ahleir Barnett, a 5-foot-9, 170-pound junior running back, made a juggling 45-yard touchdown grab from Jonas Francovich with 12 seconds left in the first half to give the Mustangs (10-1) all the points it needed in a game that featured just 320 yards, 210 by the winners.

Francovich called the play from the sideline during Lincoln's last timeout and with a solid wind at his back, zipped the ball down to the 20, where Barnett, running from the slot, got his hands on it, juggled, secured, got hit, somehow maintain his balance and zipped the final 15 yards into the end zone untouched.

Had he gone down, the half likely would have ended scoreless.

"The safety went to the other receiver, I saw an opening, (Francovich) threw it to me and everything else was history," Barnett said. ""I'm just really happy to do that for my team. It feels great."

The latter was music to the ears of Ferrigno, who tries to run a tight ship and preaches a team-first mentality. "He had been underachieving at life," Ferrigno said. "We talked to him about turning himself around. I told him we're relying on him to be a good teammate and a good young man. He's done a good job at then look what he does today? He scores the game's only touchdown and makes a hell of a play."

For a team so reliant on the run — they entered with 468 rushing attempts on the year and 40 passes — to score the game's only TD via the air was pretty shocking also. Francovich also set up the TD with his fifth interception of the year from his safety spot.

"Basically I read the safety and threw it where he wasn't," said Francovich, who was 3-of-5 for 65 yards. "I was really pumped when he caught it. To throw for the only touchdown of the game is very cool."

Last year, the Mustangs beat Mission 53-0 to win the section title. This was much different, but Ferrigno wasn't apologizing.

"It wasn't a symphony," he said. "It was kind of a marriage of parts all going in one direction, but it led to a victory. Sure we'd like it cleaner. But we got the win and get to play another game. You gotta like that."

Balboa, after its first section title since 1984, did a superb job of holding down the section's back of the year, Luis Contreras, who carried a whopping 40 times but for just 128 yards and no touchdowns. Buccaneers' defensive lineman Justin Seumanu, linebacker Jeno Leuiand safety Armonni Wolridge all had big hit for losses on the fleet back, who went over the 2,000-yard mark but didn't add to his 25-touchdown total.


With Lincoln dominating the ball, Balboa had few chances to score. It ran off just three plays in the first quarter and 16 in the first half. After Kevin Murietta gave Lincoln a 10-0 lead with a 32-yard field goal with 4:54 left in the third, the Bucs managed one big drive — picking up 76 of their 110 total yards.

A 29-yard pass from Raiden Thien-Jones to Orlindale Carraway, plus two consecutive nine-yard runs by Roman Banks and a 13-yarder from Jaziah Amataga helped get the ball to the Lincoln 4. But a holding penalty pushed the ball back and on fourth down, Tyree Cross knocked away a pass, giving the Mustangs the ball back heading into the fourth quarter.

Once again, Contreras and Lincoln chewed up the clock, running all but four plays in the final stanza. Gallegos, Cross (seven tackles), Sikoti Manumua (seven tackles, fumble recovery) and Nick Walker (two sacks) led the defensive charge. Gallegos said the inartistic win was reflective of the team's season.

"We've been through everything," he said. "The year has been bumpy. … You see the score: 10-0. We just wanted the W. We knew our defense was going to bring it."

After graduating most of the key players from last year's team, expectations were low coming into the year, Gallegos said. How'd they get it done?

"We stayed humble all season and we stayed together," he said said. "Our goal from the start of the season was to come back on Turkey Day and just win. We weren't going to let anyone stop us. Now our goal is to win another state championship."