HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL ROUNDUP : Crawford Gallops Past Third-Ranked Lincoln, 13-6

The way the Crawford Colts were celebrating after their 13-6 upset of No. 3 Lincoln Saturday night at Mesa College, you would have thought they had won the City Central League championship.

There was tailback Peter Ervin, a first-year player, bellowing across the stands, “I love Colt Ball.”

And, hey, wasn’t that Dan Armstrong, Crawford’s head coach, dancing on the field?

Why yes, it was.

“I made a deal with (the players),” Armstrong said. “If our defense shut them out (Lincoln’s touchdown came from its defense, which recovered a fumble in the end zone) then I would dance for them and do belly busters on Monday.”

Belly busters, Armstrong explained, “are what (the coaches) use to punish the players.”

Basically, they’re wind sprints. Players say they’re brutal. Armstrong insists he’ll love every minute of them.

Why? Because the winner of the Crawford-Lincoln contest in the past seven years has always gone on to lay claim to the league championship.

And with both varsities coming into Saturday’s league opener with 4-1 records, the participants gave it championship importance.

“I don’t want to discredit anyone else in the league,” Ervin said with a glance toward the Lincoln sideline, “but I think (this was for the championship).”

Unfortunately for Lincoln, they had to play the game without several starters, including leading running back Terrell Davis, who dislocated a shoulder last week against Morse.

“With Terrell Davis sitting down we knew they wouldn’t be able to pound the ball inside,” Armstrong said. “So we adjusted at the beginning of the game and took away the outside. We knew if they would try to pound inside, they wouldn’t be able to with their smaller backs.”

The ploy worked as Lincoln rushed for only 100 yards in 27 carries (Davis was averaging over 92 per game before getting hurt last week).

Nonetheless, Lincoln took the initiative in the first quarter when Bakir Madyun recovered a Phil Parker fumble in the end zone for a 6-0 lead.

But the Colts took a 7-6 lead with about three minutes to go in the half when Ervin, who gained 69 yards in 19 rushes, scored the first of his two touchdowns on an eight-yard run off right tackle. Midway through the third quarter it was 13-6 after Ervin again scored on the right side.

The game’s over, right? Well there was still the matter of Parker atoning for his fumble. He accomplished that with 2:33 to go when he caught up to Lincoln’s John McCartney, who had taken a flee-flicker pass from receiver Dwayne McAfee and was running up the right sideline when he came from behind and pulled McCartney out of bounds to ice the game.