We Gather ‘Round The Winning Team
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We Gather ‘Round The Winning Team
By Dan Ward
I’ve been waiting a couple of weeks to be able to use that verse of the fight song. It’s been a challenging few games, where I felt St. Johns was the better team on the field but not on the scoreboard. But finally, on Friday night, they proved me right.
I didn’t travel to Lincoln High School. After traveling to Gaylord last week, we weren’t able to adjust our schedules for a second week. So we watched it at Ryan’s Roadhouse. Shout-out to the staff who set me up at a table where I could see the TV, and for tolerating me taking up a table for three hours. So this is going to be a little different. I definitely missed names and numbers this week. Also, I sent out a questionnaire to the seniors and will include some of their quotes.
Lincoln High is located in Ypsilanti. They have an indoor practice facility, believe it or not. They came into this game with a 6-2 record. When I talked to the coaches earlier in the week, they didn’t really know what to expect. They had some athletes, and you never want to look past a 6-2 record, but they seemed undisciplined at times.
St. Johns came in at 4-4. I’ve said a few times that their 4-4 record could have easily been 7-1. The loss to Williamston was tough. But against Mason, they lost by 11; against Haslett, by 8; and against Gaylord, by 4—all winnable games in my opinion.
St. Johns won the coin toss and elected to receive. For those of you keeping track, that’s nine straight times we won the toss. I missed the start of the game, but St. Johns went down, and Archer Gurski scored on an eleven-yard run, and Nolan Koenigsknecht tacked on the extra point, giving St. Johns the early lead. 7-0.
Number 54 Nolan Koenigsknecht’s quote: “My favorite football memory was winning the game against Fowlerville and the locker room after the game.”
Lincoln fumbled the kickoff, and St. Johns recovered. St. Johns drove to the Railsplitters 10 but ended up turning the ball over on downs.
The question I asked the Seniors was ‘Share a short quote about what playing football for St. Johns means to you, or a favorite memory about playing football’.
Cole VanEtten #66, who got hurt in the scrimmage and hasn’t been able to see the field this year shared a a favorite story “One of my favorite memories from football was my freshman year playing on the sophomore team against Alpena when a really big guy had the ball and two guys were trying to tackle him by the legs and I jumped on his head to bring him down and everyone started laughing.”
Lincoln drove down the field behind a huge pass that got the ball to the Redwings 27. The Redwings defense got a great stop and forced them to attempt a field goal that was no good.
St. Johns took over at their 19-yard line. Behind the running of Brady Heibeck, Ian Smith, and Gurski, they moved the ball to the Lincoln 12-yard line but ended up turning it over on downs again.
Lincoln drove the field again. This time, the field goal, from the St. Johns 11-yard line, was good. With 21.5 seconds left in the half, the score was 7-3. St. Johns recovered the kickoff at their 22 and moved it to their 32 before time ran out.
Jackson Armstrong #62 responded, “Playing with these guys has felt like more than a game. It’s a brotherhood. My favorite memory is from Sophomore year, when we played in Alpena and rode the charter bus back after the game, and we all just had a great time hanging out together. Besides that, it has to be team breakfasts and bonding.”
It was Senior Night in Lincoln, and I swear to you, the entire team is made up of seniors. Lincoln chose to announce their seniors at halftime instead of pregame. They also had a band performance and a dance team performance. It seemed excessive to me, and it went beyond the allotted halftime time.
Ryan Priest wears number 15, and his favorite memory is going to Grand Haven with the football team.”
St. Johns squib kicked to Lincoln, and they went backwards. St. Johns was able to force a punt, and Lincoln downed it at the St. Johns 36-yard line.St. Johns got going on this drive. Conner Kurncz hit Ian Smith for a gain, and at 6:47 seconds in, Gurski hit paydirt again with a 41-yard touchdown. Koenigsknecht tacked on the extra point, and St. John’s led 14-3.
Lincoln wasn’t going to fold up and go away, though, and on the next drive, they scored from 60 yards out to make it 14-10.
The next drive started for St. Johns from their 37-yard line. St. Johns fumbled at their 49 and Lincoln took over. A penalty negated a Lincoln touchdown, but they scored on the next play, and with an extra point, Lincoln edged ahead for the Redwings 17-14.
St. Johns started on their 37-yard line and drove down the field. Kurncz found Heibeck for one of his two receptions. Kurncz found Tyler Priest in the End Zone, and the extra point put St. Johns back out in front for good with a score of 21-17.
The next drive for Lincoln started at their 34-yard line. They put together a decent drive, but once again, St. Johns defense stopped them, and Lincoln turned it over on downs.
Brady Pratl wears #2 for the Redwings. His favorite memory of playing football is “coming out of the locker room with all my brothers every game, knowing that everyone is watching you.”
St. Johns started the next drive early in the fourth quarter and began what was going to be the drive that put it away. Kurncz found Brady Pratl for a couple of receptions.
Meanwhile, # 9 Xavier Benjamin’s favorite thing about playing for the Redwings is “Creating memories with my team that I will remember forever.”
Back to the game. St. Johns moved the ball to the Lincoln 1, and with 2:08 to play, Kurncz shut the door on Lincoln with a 1-yard run for a touchdown. Pushing the score out to 28-17.
Lincoln had a little bit of fight left and scored with 1:15 to go. They were forced to attempt a 2-point conversion, but St. John’s stopped it, leaving the score 28-23.
Cody Carn took away all doubt when he recovered the onside kick, and St. Johns, for the first time in 4 long weeks, was in victory formation.
Christian Simmons # 11 shared that “It was never just about the games for me. It was about getting up every summer morning, pushing myself to become stronger —physically and mentally —and surrounding myself with people who shared that same drive. Football taught me discipline, resilience, and the value of grinding every day to be better than I was yesterday.”
Finally, Gavin Moreno #77 shared that “My favorite memory is last year when we destroyed Williamson. It was so much fun, and we made them so mad.”
Of course, no recap is complete without hearing from Coach Schmitt. “Very proud of our toughness, grit, and focus! We had a tough four weeks building up to this game, and we did not let it impact us. We used it as motivation. We stayed together and we kept working every day to be our best. We are excited to make the playoffs for the second straight year! This is a testament to this team, as we have faced six playoff football teams out of our nine regular-season games. We have had the ups and downs, but we have weathered the storms. Happy to get more opportunities coaching these great young men!”
There it is. St. Johns wraps up the regular season with a 5-4 record and more than likely a rematch with Haslett. Haslett is a very beatable team. The selection show is at 5:00 today.
Personally, I’d like to thank everybody who reads these. I’ve gotten so many people stop me and say thanks for doing this, and my response is always the same. I am just doing something that I like. Thanks to Chris Hallead for allowing me to do it once again.
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