Amundsen Mistakes Lead Lincoln Park to 22-14 Victory

Friday was a game of firsts for Lincoln Park High School. The team got their first touchdown and first win in a 22-14 victory over Amundsen High School.

(See more photos from the game on our Facebook page).

“It feels great,” Lion coach Jerome Hildreth said after the game. “It was all effort and discipline.”

Senior Jamari Brooks was the first to score with 10 minutes left in the half. He caught a pass from quarterback Derrick Barnes up the middle and flew into the end zone.

The Lions were aggressive and went for a 2-point conversion, giving them an 8-0 lead on the Vikings.

Amundsen answered back eight minutes later when quarterback Jaylen Petty ran the ball to the 2 yard line with 1:30 left in the half and then scored seconds later.

The Vikings tried to match Lincoln Park by going for a 2-point conversion, but were unsuccessful.

“We made a lot of mistakes and Lincoln Park, they capitalized on them,” Amundsen coach Grant Jones said. “They did what they were supposed to do and we didn’t do what we were supposed to do.”

The Lions had the ball again with one minute left in the half. Brooks caught a long pass that pushed Lincoln Park to the 22-yard line and senior quarterback Andres Vargas passed to Daimhin McGrath for a touchdown. Another 2-point conversion, and the Lions led 16-6 at the half.

“We needed people to step up other than our seniors and they did,” Hildreth said, giving credit to the defense.

A slew of penalties by both teams opened up the second half and Amundsen had a chance to score when they recovered a fumble after kicking off to Lincoln Park.

But it was the Lions that scored a touchdown with one minute left in the third quarter. This time, the 2-point conversion was unsuccessful.

“I still think we played with a lot of energy in the second half, we didn’t just lay down and give up,” Jones said.

The Vikings scored once more in the game after Petty ran 70 yards and was tackled in the red zone. Tyron Davis took the ball the rest of the way and Ean Cooper scored on the 2-point conversion.

The comeback was too late though, as the fourth quarter ended without another touchdown.  

“They came out a lot more energetic than I expected,” Jones said about Lincoln Park. ”They came out and they had a pretty good return on opening kickoff and you could just kind of see their confidence going up.”