By TERRY NAU

Sports editor

LINCOLN – Lincoln High remained its own worst enemy, in the words of head coach Dave Waycott, during Saturday night’s Division II contest with South Kingstown.
The Lions committed a whopping eight turnovers (five by air, three over ground) during a 22-0 loss to the Rebels, who fumbled the football away four times on a night when the pigskin lived up to its slippery name.
Lincoln came into the game with a 2-1 record in Division II-B. A win would have greatly enhanced its playoff hopes. Instead, the Lions are tied for fourth place in II-B with neighborhood rival Cumberland, which dropped a 22-21 verdict in overtime to Toll Gate on Saturday night. Toll Gate is also 2-2.
Lincoln, which defeated Toll Gate 19-0 earlier this month, will host Cumberland on Nov. 6 but before then the Lions must deal with winless Pilgrim and first-place Coventry (3-1). The Lions have a non-league home game with Woonsocket scheduled for this Friday evening.
“That’s been our story all year,” Waycott said on Saturday night when asked about the turnovers. “We are our own worst enemy. We messed up some assignments. The biggest thing is we are not finishing our drives.”
South Kingstown took advantage of two big gainers to gain control of this game. After Lincoln turned the ball over on downs on its opening possession, the Rebels faced a third-and-10 situation from their own 42-yard line. Quarterback Ben Hamill dropped back and found split end Patrick Gee open in the middle of the field.
Gee caught the short pass and ran to the end zone to complete a 58-yard scoring play just three minutes into the game.
Later on in the first quarter, Lincoln’s Anthony Palombo recovered a fumble, only to see O’Dell fumble the ball back on the next play at his own 24-yard line.  The Lions’ defense held and Lincoln got the ball back. O’Dell found wide reciver Kyle Jackson open for a 22-yard gain on third down but then threw a deep pass over the middle that Hamill intercepted with 1:01 left in the first stanza.
Lincoln’s Brandon Jutras sacked Hamill to force a punt on SK’s next possession. The Lions then moved the first-down markers twice as O’Dell hit Jackson for gains of 22 and 13 yards. Asjed Hussain contributed a first-down run of 12 yards but the Lions lost the ball on a bad exchange between O’Dell and Hussain on a pitch play and SK took over at its own 32-yard line.
A few minutes later, Palombo recovered another SK fumble, setting the Lions up at their own 40-yard line. O’Dell hit Palombo for eight yards on first down, then found Noel Amaral for a 20-yard gain. O’Dell ran for 11 yards to the SK 17-yard line.
After a short gain on first down, Lincoln chose to throw the ball three straight times with the final O’Dell pass falling incomplete in the end zone with three minutes left in the half.
Believe it or not, the Rebels fumbled on their second play from scrimmage, at their own 19-yard line but O’Dell’s attempted screen pass was intercepted by Rebels defensive lineman Shane McLoughlin to end the first-half sloppiness.
The Rebels also fumbled away their first possession of the second half but that would be the end of their generosity for the night. Lincoln soon punted and Hamill went to work on first down, hitting halfback Patrick Franco on a screen pass that opened up a huge hole in Lincoln’s secondary. Franco ran untouched for 57 yards before O’Dell snagged him at the one-yard line.  Nicholas Neill took the ball in for a 14-0 lead.
Waycott then determined to keep the ball on the ground and Lincoln responded with its best drive of the night, covering 78 yards on 11 yards. Brandon Jutras ran straight at SK’s defensive line and with some excellent blocking kept moving the ball down the field.
O’Dell mixed in passing gains of 22 and 16 yards to Amaral. Jutras gained 19 yards to get the ball to SK’s 14. Hussain ran to the 10 and then Jutras made five yards and three yards, putting the ball on the one-yard line.
Jutras got the ball again and was heading over the goal line when he got hit and lost possession. After some discussion among the officials, the ball was ruled a fumble and a touchback, giving SK the ball at its own 20-yard line.
“How can you fumble when you’re crossing the goal line?” Waycott asked the officials. When the game was over, the coach still did not have an reasonable explanation.
The momentum changed after that play as Hamill led his team 80 yards for the final score of the night, an 11-yard run by Neill.
O’Dell finished the night completing 8 of 20 passes with five interceptions. Hamill, playing centerfield on defense, picked off four aerials, two of them in desperation time as O’Dell kept launching deep throws over the middle.
Amaral caught 4 passes for 64 yards while Jackson caught 3 for 65.
The Lions will need to establish a more effective running game this week if they hope to keep pace with a very physical Woonsocket squad on Friday night.
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South Kingstown    6 – 0 – 8 – 8 – 22
Lincoln        0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
SK – Patrick Gee 58 pass from Ben Hamill (run failed)
SK – Nicholas Neill 1 run (Neill run)
SK – Nicholas Neill 11 run (Gee pass from Hamill)