Originally published Friday, September 3, 2010 at 11:54 PM

Last-minute Mercer Island TD beats Seattle Prep, 19-15

Jeff Lindquist led a 15-play, 64-yard drive in the final 2:16, finding Ben Emanuels in the end zone with four seconds to play for the winning TD.

By Mike Allende

Special to The Seattle Times

WEST SEATTLE — The general rule in football, especially these days, is if you have a quarterback, you've got a shot.

Mercer Island has a quarterback, and that gave the Islanders a shot. And that's all they needed.

Quarterback Jeff Lindquist led a 15-play, 64-yard drive in the final 2 minutes, 16 seconds, finding Ben Emanuels in the end zone with four seconds to play to give Mercer Island a 19-15 nonleague victory over Seattle Prep on Friday night at West Seattle Stadium.

"As long as we're down by 7, we feel like we're OK," Mercer Island coach Brett Ogata said. "We feel like we have a chance. And the kids never quit. This is the most resilient group of kids I've had here."

It took plenty of that resilience for the Islanders to stay in it, as they had trouble against a Seattle Prep defense led by linebacker Nick Holt, the son of University of Washington defensive coordinator Nick Holt. But while the Panthers made several big plays defensively, it wasn't enough against Lindquist, who finished 23 for 45 for 222 yards and three touchdowns.

Taking over at his 36-yard line, Lindquist, a 6-foot-3, 225-pound junior converted a fourth-and-one with a 1-yard run and later twice converted with third-down passes, including a 14-yarder to Emanuels after escaping a rush from Holt.

Then, on third-and-five from the 7, Lindquist rolled left and found Emanuels near the left sideline of the end zone for the winning touchdown.

"I have to credit Ben, he made a great catch," said Lindquist. "We knew the game was in our hands and we felt like if we have the game in our hands, good things can happen."

Holt scored for Prep on a fourth-down, 9-yard run in the second quarter and then came up huge again, stripping the ball cleanly out of Connor Bernal's hands and running in for another touchdown and a 15-12 Panthers lead.

"He's a great player and we game-planned around him," Mercer Island left tackle Sean Pyne said. "We wanted to focus on him in our running game and do our best to keep him away on passing plays. But he's a great player."

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