As the calendar turned to October, No. 1 Lincoln Christian kicked it into another gear, as the Bulldogs dominated from start to finish in a 61-6 road victory over Victory Christian.

Lincoln (4-1, 2-0) scored on its first six drives of the game and had seven first half touchdowns, while simultaneously shutting the Conquerors offense down for the majority of the game.

The Bulldogs had over 400 yards in the first half behind a career performance from sophomore running back Max Madrid.

Madrid had eight first half touches for 257 total yards and four touchdowns, igniting a Lincoln offense that was clicking on all levels.

"Max is a really tough runner who thrives in our schemes," said Ricke. "He just did a great job with making the second and third level defenders miss in the open field on Friday. I thought our guys up front did a good job springing him to those levels."

The Bulldogs averaged 15 yards per play in the first half, as sophomore quarterback Major Brooks had 206 passing yards and three scores in the first 18 minutes of the game.

"We've been working on starting faster and getting better execution in our openers and I think you saw that Friday," said Lincoln head coach Jerry Ricke. "Really happy that we avoided penalties and negative plays as those have hurt us in the past."

The Bulldogs finished with 502 total yards on just 36 plays, while holding Victory to 101 yards as a team on just 1.9 yards per play.

"I'm really excited with the way we played defensively," said Ricke. "We were more aggressive and attacking and our guys like that. Our mindset is 'let's not worry so much about what they are doing, let's be proactive and do what we do.'"

After four straight games to open the 2026 season in dogfights against highly ranked teams, it was the first game where Ricke, his staff and team felt like they were able to get out and run away from an opponent, which they had done so much during the long win streak from 2023-2025.

"We did have a moment at halftime where the team and coaches were all kind of like 'finally' we played up to our full potential in the half," said Ricke. "I think our guys believed they could do it. They just needed to go back and out there and get it done."

Lincoln opened the game with an 8-play drive, covering 71 yards to take a 7-0 lead.

Brooks was 4-of-5 on the drive and Madrid scored his first touchdown of the night on a 9-yard TD run, barreling over defenders with just under nine minutes to go in the opening quarter.

The Bulldogs forced Victory to punt on the ensuing drive, giving the ball back to Lincoln but deep in its own territory.

Three plays later, on 3rd and 12, Brooks found Madrid on the visiting sideline on a classic Lincoln screen play.

It was set up perfectly, as Madrid had a ton of space and eventually weaved in-and-out of traffic, racing 85 yards to the house.

All of a sudden, Lincoln led 14-0 with 4:48 to go in the first.

Victory (3-2, 1-1) had to punt again on the following drive, as the Bulldogs got it back at the Lincoln 32-yard line.

Lincoln needed just two plays to score this time, as Madrid ran for 15 yards to get it out near midfield. 

That's when Brooks found a streaking Caleb Peterson behind the secondary for a 53-yard touchdown.

The pitch and catch made it 21-0 with 1:19 remaining in the quarter.

Comfort and his defense forced another quick punt, as Lincoln got it back and struck quickly, again.

Madrid took the handoff on the second play of the drive, broke a would be tackle in the open field and outraced the defense for another big touchdown.

The 61-yard run was the third score of the night for the sophomore, making it 28-0 with 10:20 to go in the half.

After another Victory punt, it was another quick response for the Bulldogs by a familiar face.

Madrid's final act of the night would be his most impressive, as he broke a handful of tackles from seemingly the entire Conquerors' defense.

The hard-running No. 7 raced 75 yards for the touchdown, stretching the Bulldogs' lead to five scores with 7:17 left in the second quarter.

Comfort's unit came up with another turnover on the ensuing possession, as the Bulldogs have been opportunistic through the first half of the regular season with 10 takeaways.

Junior defensive lineman Nate Uyetake jumped on the ball on 4th down, giving Lincoln the ball back with a short field.

Brooks and Peterson hooked up for another touchdown on the next drive, as the sophomore placed a perfect ball in-between several defenders and the playmaking receiver came down with an impressive contested catch.

"The success those two have all starts with execution in practice," said Ricke. "Major and Caleb have a great connection in practice and that carries over to the games. I see the same thing with Kade and Major."

"Really like the way those guys are progressing. And then you start seeing more of (Colt) Monsey and (Cayden) Mathurin and we're able to spread the ball around more."

The 23-yard touchdown made it 42-0 with 6:46 to go in the first half.

The Bulldogs final touchdown of the first half came just before the end of the quarter, as junior Braxton McGinnis capped off just a 3-play, 20-yard drive with a 2-yard TD run to make it 48-0 at the break.

Victory's only score of the game came on a 10-play, 61-yard drive that took almost nine minutes to open the 3rd quarter.

Lincoln immediately responded however, as freshman Ronan Jones took the ensuing kickoff back 88 yards to answer, putting Lincoln up 55-6.

The Bulldogs added another touchdown in the 4th, as backup quarterback Jarrison Moore scored from four yards out to cap off an 8-play, 67-yard drive that took over six minutes long.

Brooks was 10-of-14 passing and had two carries for 19 yards on the ground.

Madrid had 172 yards on just the seven attempts.

McGinnis had five carries for 28 yards, while Moore finished 3-of-3 passing for 31 yards and had 18 yards on just two rushes.

Peterson had four grabs for 81 yards, while Wilson had two catches for 27 yards and Monsey had 10 yards on two receptions.

Nate Johnston had 28 rushing yards on three attempts, while Jones, Kohen Bruce, Mathruin and Christian Katsis each caught a pass in the win.

The Bulldogs held Victory to just 1-of-10 on third down and forced eight punts in 11 possessions.

Lincoln had the ball for just over 16 minutes of possession for the game and faced just four third downs.

The Bulldogs are back in action at home this week, when Lincoln hosts Heavener. 

Photos by Lee Talley