Lindsey Wilson Wins 23-22 over Reinhardt

Football | Sat, Nov. 19, 2022 at 5:45 PM

Story Courtesy of Lindsey Wilson Athletics

COLUMBIA, Ky. – The Lindsey Wilson football team advanced another round in the NAIA Football Championship Series with a 23-22 win over No. 9 Reinhardt (Ga.) on Saturday afternoon at Parnell Family Stadium.

Lindsey Wilson scored the first 23 points of the contest but then conceded the final 22 points to narrowly win the contest. Reinhardt scored all of their points across the final seven minutes of play. The Blue Raider defense came up huge, stuffing a two-point conversion to preserve the win with just 18 seconds to play in the game. 

Reinhardt drove 74 yards on eight plays with Hunter Artis finding Louis Morris for the 11-yard receiving touchdown, putting the contest at 23-22 with 18 seconds on the clock. The score gave the Eagles 22 unanswered points and a chance to level the score, but opted for going for the lead. 

Artis pulled the ball from the running back on the two-point conversion, getting stuffed by the Blue Raider front seven and falling just short of the goal line. Lindsey Wilson recovered the ensuing onside kick, kneeling the ball out and advancing to the next round of the NAIA Football Championship Quarterfinals.

After a quarter and a half of punts back and forth to open the contest, the Blue Raiders opened the scoring from an Ian Sauter 24-yard field goal with 7:05 remaining in the second quarter. The Eagles looked to tie or take the lead driving deep into Blue Raider territory. Ty Tevis ended the threat, punching the ball free and recovered by Darius Holden.

Following a Reinhardt punt, Lindsey Wilson picked up possession at the Eagles 33-yard line, giving Sauter a field goal attempt from 50-yards which ultimately sailed left of the post. 

Deven Holmes later intercepted the Hunter Arters pass across the middle as the clock struck zero, with LWC taking a 3-0 lead into the half.

Lindsey Wilson scored 20 points in the second half as Sauter opened the scoring knocking home his second of three field goals. Sauter connected from 42-yards putting the game at 6-0 early in the third quarter. 

Blue Raiders received the ball back after the Eagles punt, when Cash threaded the needle and connected with Warren for a big 32-yard gain, flipping the field. Lindsey Wilson used another Sauter field goal from 38-yards to push their lead to nine points.

Lindsey Wilson scored their first touchdown of the day after using Belchers’ five carries on the eight play 3:14 minute drive to push the score to 16-0. Belcher capped off the drive when her reached across the goal line for the ten yard touchdown. 

Punts for both teams resulted in Reinhardt possession. The Eagles drove down to the Lindsey Wilson red zone but Luke Bowman picked off Arters pass. The senior linebacker took it 95 yards with a convoy for the pick-six. The score pinned the contest at 23-0 with 7:04 remaining in regulation.

The Eagles were not out of the picture yet, as Arters connected with David Friedberg for a 55-yard touchdown pass with the two-point conversion being successful. Reinhardt then recovered the on-side kick, using eight plays polished off by another Arters passing touchdown to Kemonta Stockdale, seeing that two-point conversion good and putting the score at 23-16 with 4:50 left to play.

Kobe Belcher was named offensive player of the game with his 33 carries totaling 138 yards and one touchdown. Bowman was tabbed as the defensive player of the game racking up nine tackles, one tackle-for-loss, and one interception returned for a 95 yard touchdown.

Holmes turned in an impressive performance with seven tackles, 2.5 tackles-for-loss, one forced fumble, one sack, and one interception.

Lindsey Wilson will face Grand View (Iowa) at Noon CT on Saturday. A full preview will available later this week on lindseyathletics.com