'I knew my guys would pull it out.' Lincoln-Sudbury football edges Brockton in overtime
SUDBURY – After his teammates hopped off the field, Luke Ohler hobbled.
With one arm draped around Jenson Martin and the other leaning on Louie Stephan, Ohler was helped onto the field – the exact opposite scene from when the Lincoln-Sudbury senior captain needed assistance toward the sideline in the fourth quarter.
His sojourn back onto the turf was slow but triumphant – many a teammate saying “Love you, Luke” as the rest of the Warriors gathered in an end zone for a jubilant post-game gathering. Just minutes prior, in the opposite end zone, L-S stopped Brockton’s fourth-down run short of the goal line, preserving a 29-21 overtime victory on Friday night.
“It was the best thing in the world, just to see those guys step up,” Ohler said while sitting on the back of a small ATV, allowing his injured knee to rest. “It was hard (not playing in the OT), but I knew my guys would pull it out. I have confidence in my guys always.”
L-S quarterback Cooper Tarantino easily scampered in from 10 yards out to begin the overtime before the Warriors held off Brockton’s last gasp on QB Jayden Campbell’s keeper that fell short. The teams played an OT game last year as well, the Boxers winning at home 42-34.
With Ohler doing most of the work, L-S (2-1) ran the ball with success for much of the game, chewing up nearly 10 minutes to start the second half on a 71-yard drive when Tarantino hit Peter Abair for a 21-6 lead late in the third.
But Ohler soon left the game and was forced to watch from the sideline with an ice pack on his knee while the Boxers (0-3) made their comeback.
“That’s one of my best buddies – I've been playing with him for a long time,” Tarantino said. “Seeing a guy go down like that is definitely tough, especially because we get to come out on top like this – I'd love to see him jumping around like the rest of us. Everybody realizes he was a huge part of that win.”
Campbell, a freshman, engineered Brockton’s comeback with a 56-yard touchdown pass to Cameron Monteiro and a 1-yard score on fourth down with 2 minutes, 47 seconds left in regulation to send the game into OT.
Brockton head coach and former New England Patriot Jermaine Wiggins was pleased with his team’s resilient effort despite the outcome.
“That’s the nature of the game,” he said. “You have an opportunity to win the football game, and we weren’t able to make enough plays. I’ve got to give my guys a lot of credit; they fought their butts off. They could have easily folded up, but they didn’t.”
Tim Dumas is a multimedia journalist for the Daily News. He can be reached at tdumas@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @TimDumas.
This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: Lincoln-Sudbury football edges Brockton in overtime
