3 takeaways from Lincoln’s 56-35 loss to Bellevue
The Lincoln Abes had a lead, briefly. They trimmed a seemingly insurmountable deficit to a single score. And they had a chance to punch in a final touchdown on the game’s last play.
The Abes just didn’t have enough to get over the top against the host Bellevue Wolverines on Friday, and ultimately succumbed in their non-league football contest, 56-35, at Bellevue Memorial Stadium.
“We fought all the way to the last play,” Lincoln coach Masaki Matsumoto said.
Quarterback Gabarri Johnson’s final pass, after a timeout with one second to go at the Bellevue 11-yard line, tipped off his receiver’s hands in the end zone after the final buzzer sounded. It was Johnson’s 39th attempt of a game in which he completed 24 for 353 yards and four touchdowns.
Lincoln can be explosive
As Johnson’s passing numbers show, the Abes can move the football. And against the Wolverines, they did it both methodically and quickly.
Lincoln took nearly five minutes off the clock on the first possession of the game. While the drive ended with the first of two touchdown passes from Johnson to Jayden Wayne – an 8-yard strike on third and goal – the Abes ran the ball right at a Bellevue team that makes its way with its own running game.
The Abes went 80 yards in 14 plays, nine on the ground and five through the air, to take the early 7-0 lead with 7:08 to play in the first quarter.
“I feel like we can be super balanced,” Matsumoto said. “We have a 1-2 punch (with running backs Navarre Dixon and Majesty Irving), and Gabarri can run it. Then we have the wide receivers to throw it down the field. So we can be a balanced team.”
Yes, the lead only lasted four plays and 1:32 of the clock. Bellevue responded by going 67 yards on those four plays, all on the ground, and tied it with 5:36 to go in the quarter on the first of two touchdowns from Ishaan Daniels.
Bellevue then took the lead for good, 14-7, on its next possession – just three plays – that covered 87 yards.
Gabarri Johnson is elusive
On several occasions against a Bellevue rush that got more and more relentless, Lincoln’s junior QB showed why he’s one of the top recruits of the 2023 class.
Never was it more apparent than on a two-point conversion try after Johnson had thrown a 61-yard scoring strike to Khaleel Robinson with 6:26 left in the third quarter. The pass connection cut the Wolverines lead to 35-25.
Lincoln went for two, and Johnson dropped to pass. Bellevue’s rush forced him to abort, but he first stepped through two would-be tacklers behind the line of scrimmage, made a quick step left and cut back right, slipped through another defender and bulled his way through a group of three players into the end zone for the two points to cut the margin to one score, 35-27.
“Probably the best quarterback we’ve played in a long time,” Bellevue coach Michael Kneip said. “You want to play the best teams early on. They’re really physical, and you get to play the top player in the country, the top quarterback, arguably, in the country. That should make us better.”
Early trials pay off later
It’s not been an easy non-league season for the Abes.
They have suffered defeats to tough Yelm, beat Skyline in a shootout and then lost to hard-hitting Bellevue. But the difficult early season should set Lincoln up for success in the 3A Pierce County League.
It’s just high energy,” Johnson said. “That’s what we stand on as a team. We didn’t come out victorious, but it’s all good. The team that we have is just all about how we love each other and how we still play as a team. We’re still gonna get after it and keep playing ‘til the end like we did (tonight).”
“Yelm, Skyline, Bellevue,” Matsumoto said. “They made us better, for sure, going into league.”
This story was originally published September 17, 2021 at 11:07 PM with the headline "3 takeaways from Lincoln’s 56-35 loss to Bellevue."