Bedford runs away from Lincoln in second half of 39-14 win

TEMPERANCE - The Lincoln High School football team, trailing 19-7 at halftime, caught a break during intermission in more ways than one.

Temperance Bedford's halftime huddle ran long, yielding a delay of game penalty that pushed its kick unit back to the 25-yard line for the second-half kickoff, which gave speedy Lincoln kick returner Rare Williams an appetizing amount of field to work with.

Williams took full advantage, fielding the ball -- on the run -- at the 15-yard-line before needling through a swarm of Bedford defenders and finding the right sideline for an 85-yard touchdown return. The electrifying return, however, was the last shining moment for the Railsplitters in a 39-14 Southeastern Conference loss Friday at Bedford Community Stadium.

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Lincoln turned the ball over five times and Bedford scored on three of its subsequent possessions.

"We knew we couldn't make any mistakes like that," said Lincoln coach Chris Westfall. "The turnovers were critical. We're not good enough, we have to execute very well.

"(Bedford) is a great offensive team," added Westfall. "We knew they were a tough offense to stop."

Moving the chains for the Kicking Mules in the first half was running back Erik Jones, who scored 27-yard and 45-yard touchdowns in the second quarter, giving Bedford a 13-0 lead.

But the Railsplitters, who were shut out 45-0 by Mason last week, responded with their first touchdown of the season. Lincoln (0-2, 0-1 SEC White) worked five minutes off the clock before quarterback TJ O'Bryan hit Williams on a 20-yard strike in the end zone at 2 minutes, 21 seconds. Nathaniel Simonds buried the point-after to cut the gap to 13-7.

"O'Bryan, he's got great savvy," Westfall said of the junior, who threw for 89 yards on 9-of-20 passing. "He's good at finding people. He's definitely a playmaker."

Bedford (2-0, 1-0 SEC Red) tacked on another score, this time on a two-yard run by Lee Hullibarger, to make for a 19-7 score at the half.

Despite the lead, Bedford coach Jeff Wood wasn't pleased, hence the Kicking Mules' delay of game penalty during intermission.

"The kids made a decision at halftime that we had to pick it up and play with a lot more intensity," said Wood. "To Ypsi-Lincoln's credit, they were a step faster than us all first half."

When Williams was a step -- or three -- faster than everyone on the field on the second-half kickoff, it put Lincoln on Bedford's heels, 19-14.

"I was running straight and I was just marking off anybody I saw," explained Williams. "See one person, make a move. See the next, make a move.

"I was thinking touchdown all the way."

Unfortunately for Lincoln, it would be the last time it saw the end zone.

Bedford, meanwhile, responded with three unanswered scores in the third quarter; the latter two coming off a Lincoln fumble and after the Railsplitters' gutsy 4th-and-2 try on their own 33 came up empty.

Tom Ferry, who rushed for a game-high 106 yards, punched in the Mule's final score on an 11-yard sweep.

"We kind of felt like the game was getting away from us - we had to make a stand right there," said Westfall, explaining his reason not to punt.

After its 20-point third quarter, Bedford fielded its second-string and Lincoln soon followed suit to finish the fourth quarter.

"We're close. We're close to being a solid football team," said Westfall. "There are a lot of good things I saw. This week, we've made big progress."

Kaleb Roedel is a sports writer for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734)623-2562 and e-mailed at kalebroedel@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @Kaleb_R.