No. 7 Lincoln 14, No. 10 Bonney Lake 3: Teshawn Seu’s pick-six lifts Abes to 3A PCL title

Teshawn Seu picked off the pass and sprinted 90 yards to the end zone.

As suddenly as that play transpired, the Lincoln High School football team could forget about their 100 yards in penalties, two turnovers and zero points. And it stopped worrying about a potential second consecutive loss to Bonney Lake after the Panthers ended the Abes’ season in the 3A state playoffs last year.

That’s the power of a play.

Seu’s interception return gave Lincoln its first lead of the game midway through the fourth quarter, and Joey Sinclair’s 60-yard touchdown run on the Abes’ next possession gave them a 14-3 victory on Friday to clinch the 3A Pierce County League title.

“It felt great,” said Seu, who said he last had a pick-six in the eighth grade. “It was kind of hard to breath, but I had to do what I had to do.”

Since Stadium lost to Lakes on Friday, the Abes secured the No. 1 seed from the league to the 3A district playoffs with a game to go. Lincoln and Stadium play at 7 p.m. at Stadium Bowl next week.

But back to that interception.

Bonney Lake (6-2, 5-1 3A PCL) was finally moving the ball against Lincoln’s defense. It had taken a 3-0 lead in the third quarter when Tate Hamlett made a 29-yard field goal, set up by 30 yards in Lincoln defensive penalties.

But then in the third, the Panthers chose not to try another field goal, and went for it on fourth-and-7 from the Lincoln 17.

“We wanted to win the game, and a field goal doesn’t do much,” Bonney Lake coach Jason Silbaugh said. “And to be honest, we saw something we thought we could take advantage of.”

They almost did on third down, but a pass near the goal line was dropped.

“At that point, we’re looking to win the game,” Silbaugh said. “Either we score a TD and we’re going to win, or you pin them and make them have to go 95 yards.”

But there was also improbable Option C — where Teu picks it off and returns it for a touchdown.

“That kind of lit a fire into our whole team,” Lincoln coach Masaki Matsumoto said.

“Teshawn came up clutch,” Sinclair said. “That just changed the momentum for the whole game.”

Sinclair shortly after busted loose on a read option for a 60-yard TD run, Lincoln recovered a fumble on the ensuing kickoff, and Alex Gillies, who had just returned from a trip to China with other Lincoln students, to put the nail in the coffin with his own interception.

Sinclair had 12 carries for 107 yards and threw for 61 yards. Tristian Kwon had 26 carries for 147 yards.

But credit to Bonney Lake’s defense for shutting out Lincoln’s offense out for three quarters when the Abes came in in averaging 42.3 points per game through three quarters.

“This game showed we can play with anybody,” Silbaugh said. “I told our guys, ‘This season is not over.’

“I laughed and I said, ‘Guys, we were a four seed last year and went to the (state) quarterfinals. So what’s going to happen when we’re a higher seed?”

Even if it won’t be as high a seed as Lincoln, which on senior night saw its seniors improve their four-year record to 36-5 — best in school history. Their first two years came under Jon Kitna, and the past two have been with Matsumoto.

“I don’t care who we play or revenge or anything like that,” Matsumoto said. “We just got to take it one game at a time, every week, every team — we don’t care about their name — gives us a test to figure out how much we’ve improved from that week.”

This story was originally published October 21, 2016 at 11:01 PM with the headline "No. 7 Lincoln 14, No. 10 Bonney Lake 3: Teshawn Seu’s pick-six lifts Abes to 3A PCL title."