Lincoln wins 12th straight 'Big Bone', serious injury dampens victory

Lincoln vs San Jose game

By Greg Lydon

Lincoln wins 13^th straight Big Bone game, but serious injury dampens 66^th Thanksgiving classic

The Lincoln High-San Jose football team defeated San Jose Academy 36-18 in the 66^th edition of the annual Thanksgiving Day rivalry held at San Jose City College.

Already dealing with a rough 0-9 season, the Lincoln post-game celebration after the Lions first win of the year was tempered by a serious injury to a San Jose player in the first quarter of play.

San Jose Academy running back and Willow Glen High transfer Matt Blea suffered a head injury and collapsed moments later on the sideline.

After a Lincoln interception, Blea was blocked by a Lions linebacker on the return and hit his head on the turf.

Blea got up, but fell to the ground moments later on the sideline.

The Bulldogs star player is currently still in critical condition in the intensive care unit at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.

The tailback suffered a skull fracture and came in and out of consciousness on the sidelines before medical personal arrived at the scene.

“As a coach, I've never seen anything like that,” Lincoln head coach Kevin Collins said. “I can't really enjoy anything about the game right now. Not until the kid is OK. I just stopped by the hospital last (Friday) night to see how he was doing.”

Lincoln came into the game 0-9 overall.

In their league finale on Nov. 12, Lincoln fell 25-20 to Leigh in one of their strongest efforts of the year.

Junior wing back Josh Ayala opened the scoring with an 18-yard touchdown run to put Lincoln ahead 7-0.

Another Lions junior, defensive back Mark Balliet, picked off a Bulldogs pass and raced towards midfield on the play where Blea was injured.

“I don't think the crowd or some of our players on our sideline knew the gravity of the situation when he went down,” Collins said. “I went over and was there until the ambulance came about 10 minutes after it happened.”

With both sides still reeling from the traumatic injury, the game went on and San Jose took the lead.

The Bulldogs scored off a 20-yard run, then executed a successful onside kick and went down and added a second touchdown to take a 12-7 lead.

Sophomore quarterback Chris Pope connected with senior Jorge Escobar for a 40-yard touchdown late in the half as Lincoln regained the lead for good and took a 18-12 lead into the locker room.

Lincoln tacked on three more second half scores, started off by junior tailback Stephen Robertson.

Robertson scored on a 5-yard touchdown burst.

Later in the quarter, senior Richard Azure kept the good vibes on the ground moving with a 60-yard touchdown scamper.

“I was really happy with the way we responded,” Collins said. “After they put together a couple nice drives, our guys came back and played really well. I think we enjoyed the win, but there was kind of a black cloud over the whole thing knowing that a player was seriously hurt.”

Returning from injury, junior Michael Hidalgo found the end zone off a 5-yard touchdown run in the fourth.

Lincoln won its 12^th straight “Big Bone Game” 36-18.

Lions seniors Oscar Sanchez, Desmond McCann, Azure, William Pacheco, Escobar, Manuel Rocha, Felipe Riveros, Julio Delcarmen, Ed Diaz, Tony Razo, Carlos Cabrera, Michael Posada, Eric Mitchell, Roman Crowell, Hector Casillas, Marco De la Cruz, Elias Pena, Daniel Dart, Michael Hall, Jesus Garcia, Patrick Duncan and Nick Wells all played in their final high school game on Turkey Day.