CHULA VISTA — With less than four minutes to go in Saturday’s first half, the No. 1-ranked Lincoln High School football team trailed Las Vegas Arbor View by 24 points. With less than 30 seconds left in the game, the Hornets were up by six.
But with 26.5 seconds left in the game, the Aggies sensational sophomore quarterback Thaddeus Thatcher scored on a quarterback sneak from a yard to spoil one of the greatest season-opening comebacks and beat the host Hornets 45-44 Saturday afternoon at Southwestern College.
“Yes, we showed a lot of fight and it was a great comeback,” said Lincoln coach David Dunn, “but we have to be able to close it out. We need to come out better, play better on special teams and finish.”
Lincoln could not stop Thatcher at all in the first half. The sophomore completed 19 of 25 es for 309 yards and three TDs. He finished the game with 583 ing yards.
The Aggies scored once with a run, three times through the air, blocked a punt and hit a hit a field goal in the half.
Meanwhile, Lincoln sputtered.
But the Hornets did find out they have another new legitimate weapon in Del Norte transfer Ty Olsen. The San Jose State commit scored his first touchdown for the Hornets on a 30-yard from Akili Smith Jr. with 3:58 left in the first quarter for a 7-7 tie.
Arbor View, the No. 3 team in Las Vegas behind only USA Today national champion Bishop Gorman and Nevada 5A runner-up Henderson Liberty, ran off 24 straight points to take a 31-7 lead with 5:08 left in the half.
Lincoln cut it to 31-14 on a 1-yard keeper by Smith, only to see Thatcher come right back to reopen the lead to 24 at the half.
Everything changed in the second half.
“Hats off to them (Lincoln), they made some great adjustments,” said first-year Arbor View coach Marlon Barnett, a former offensive coordinator who employs the offense he used playing college ball at Texas Tech under Mike Leach. “They started crashing their defensive ends more and jammed us playing man-to-man.”
The Hornets forced three second-half turnovers, including a pair of interceptions by senior Abdulahi Sharif.
Offensively, Smith (21-31, 371 yards) got hot. He completed 9 of 11 second-half es for 232 yards. Including touchdown es of 11, 30 and 58 yards to Olsen.
The last one came as Smith pumped to Olsen on a quick post, who then kept going and Smith hit him in stride for the go-ahead TD with just 2:31 left to play.
Thatcher spoiled the party, completing 4 of 5 es on the 69-yard drive on eight plays for the winning score with 26.5 seconds left.
Smith got the Hornets all the way down to the Aggies’ 37, but ran out of time.
The Hornets look to put the disappointment behind them as they hit the road next week, traveling to Long Beach to play Poly Friday night, followed by a trip to Henderson, Nev/, to face Coronado High the following week. They return home to take on JSerra Catholic of San Juan Capistrano at Southwestern College on Sept. 13.
They don’t play a San Diego opponent until their eighth game of the year.
