Lincoln Trojans Defeats Niceville in Football Opener

On Aug. 22nd, the Lincoln Trojans football team (1-0) opened their regular season with a game against the Niceville Eagles (0-1) at Chiles High School. These two teams last saw each other in the 2024-2025 regional finals, a game won by Niceville, 31-10. While there are multiple changes to both teams for the 2025 season, one of the most significant is Lincoln’s new starting quarterback, Taylor Jacobs who moved over from Chiles.

After the Trojans stopped Niceville on their opening drive, Lincoln found the endzone on only two passing plays, jumping to a 7-0 start in the first quarter. After going back and forth, Niceville started to pick up momentum stringing a drive together as the first quarter expired.

After a Niceville touchdown at the beginning of the second quarter, Jacobs threw his second interception of the night which led to a thirty-yard touchdown pass, putting Niceville up 15-7 with 7:22 left in first half. With the half coming to a close, Jacobs completed a long touchdown pass on the run to limit Niceville’s lead to 15-13 at halftime.

Lincoln started off the second half much like they did the first with a touchdown pass taking the lead at 19-15. After both offenses exchanged multiple touchdowns, the Lincoln defense came up with a crucial fumble recovery to stop the Eagles with 5:39 left in the game. Lincoln kicker Thomas Arnold helped seal the deal as he converted a clutch field goal to put the Trojans up 36-29 with two minutes to go. With the game on the line, the Trojan defense came up with a stop giving Lincoln their first win of the 2025 regular season.

Notable performances for Lincoln included quarterback Taylor Jacobs Jr (Sr.) with 318 passing yards on 23 completions and three passing touchdowns, wide receiver Kabran Paul (Sr.) with 71 yards on five receptions and two touchdowns and wide receiver Maliek Denmark (Sr.) with 178 yards on nine receptions and one touchdown.

Other Leon County Football Scores: Chiles lost an away game to Dothan 17-42, Florida High beat Dunnelon 17-14 at home, Rickards won an away game against Godby 41-34, Maclay beat Jefferson County at home 31-6, NFC lost a home game to Chipley 7-20, and FAMU DRS lost a home game to Abbeville Christian Academy 6-44