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By John Tolis
Brooklyn Daily
Undefeated Abraham Lincoln overpowered Flushing for a semifinal win, but may have taken a big loss of its own in the process.
Star two-way lineman Thomas Holley — one of the nation’s top recruits — was ejected late in the third quarter of the top-seeded Railsplitters 55–7 victory over the No. 4 Red Devils in the Public School Athletic League City conference football semifinals on Saturday afternoon in Coney Island.
By league rules, Holley would have to miss Lincoln’s next game — the city championship against No. 3 Tottenville at 5 pm on Dec. 10 at Yankees Stadium. It’s the Railsplitters’ third trip to the final in the last four years.
Holley was tossed after the referees thought they saw him throw a punch at Flushing’s Emir Mrkulic in the backfield. Lincoln coach Shawn O’Connor just saw a shove, and he felt it didn’t merit an immediate ejection. O’Connor will appeal in hopes of having the suspension overturned, allowing Holley to suit up for the championship game.
“There’s always an appeal, and we’ll go through the appeal process,” O’Connor said.
With or without Holley, Lincoln is confident its squad will be ready to go for the title.
“It’s a big blow, but I know my other juniors and whoever is in that position behind him will step it up in the big game,” said running back Antoine Holloman Jr., who rushed for three touchdowns.
Lincoln (12–0) dominated from start to finish. Holloman scored twice on the ground to give his team an early 14–0 lead. After an interception by Khendell Puryear, quarterback Javon Moore rushed the ball in the end zone to raise the lead to 21–0 with 3:00 remaining the first quarter.
The Railsplitters kept pounding the Red Devils (9–3) on the ground. Early in the second quarter, Lincoln tacked on another score to make it 27–0 when Holloman went the distance on a 79-yard run.
“My team did amazing. We came out here and dominated on the defensive end of the ball and the offensive side of the ball,” Moore said. “We just did everything we knew we had to do.”
Moore also threw two touchdown passes in the second quarter. After an interception by Aaron Henderson, Moore connected with junior Luis Rodriguez 28-yards out to make it 34–0. Not too long after, he found sophomore Carlos Stewart for a 27-yard touchdown pass that gave his squad a 41–0 advantage.
O’Connor knew that his team wasn’t going to go down in the semifinal for a second straight year. The seniors wouldn’t allow it.
“The kids really showed up today, especially the senior crew, who didn’t want to lose a game on their home field,” O’Connor said.
Abraham Lincoln notched two more scores in the third quarter with a 21-yard rushing touchdown by Leroy Hancle and a 13-yard scoring run by Elias Davis.
The performance leaves Moore even more confident in his squad’s ability to get the crown that has been the goal all season.
“I know my team is going to do what we have to to have rings on our fingers,” Moore said.