LINCOLN — Lincoln Southwest coach Mark King said his Silver hawks had “a quiet confidence” coming into their Class A quarterfinal with crosstown rival Lincoln Southeast, despite losing 17-12 to the Knights in the regular season.

It was the Southwest defense that did all the talking during Friday’s rematch, as the Silver hawks finished off a 14-7 upset of the second-ranked Knights in front of 5,403 fans at Seacrest Field.

The win continues the Silver hawks’ surprising run in the Class A playoffs. Southwest received a wild-card berth as the final team in the field, but now moves into the semifinals to face Millard West a week from today.

They did it with a dominant defensive effort that hassled Southeast quarterback Derrius Vick into four turnovers (three interceptions and a fumble), largely limited Knights star running back Zach Taylor, and held the Knights (9-2) to 229 total yards.

“Last time we played them was a really close game. We just knew there were a few little things we had to get corrected,” Southwest quarterback Rylan Cotton said. “Our defense played great and shut them down all night.”

Southwest (7-4) jumped in front in the first quarter after the first of junior cornerback Austin Tompkins’ two interceptions. After Tompkins returned his first pick to the Knights’ 19-yard-line, Southwest needed just three plays to take the lead on Jeff Seybold’s 11-yard touchdown run.

Tompkins’ second INT snuffed out a threat by Southeast in the second quarter — coming just two plays after the Knights recovered a Seybold fumble at the Silver hawk 34-yard-line.

“Just reading their quarterback’s eyes helped me a lot,” said Tompkins, who missed the teams’ first meeting Oct. 9 with a groin injury. “On the second (interception) I played off a little bit, found where he was going, and just looked it into my hands.”

The Southeast defense was equally stout, just not as opportunistic. Southwest gained only 227 yards but didn’t turn the ball over and put together one crucial drive in the second quarter to get some breathing room before the half.

Midway through the second, Cotton capped off a 51-yard march with a 10-yard touchdown run to push the lead to 14-0. Cotton was 3-for-3 passing on the drive, including a 16-yard hookup with Jordan Tyrance on 3rd-and-12.

Other than that, Southeast didn’t allow a single drive longer than 37 yards and twice in the second half stopped the Silver hawks on 4th-and-1.

“In games like this with two evenly matched teams, it’s the team that makes the fewest mistakes that’s going to win,” Southeast coach John Larsen said. “We felt our defense would keep us in the game. We just needed to put some points on the board. We gave ourselves chances but couldn’t convert.”

Lincoln SW (7-4)................7 7 0 0—14

Lincoln SE (9-2)...................0 0 0 7—7

LSW: Seybold 11 yard run (Tay Bender kick)

LSW: Cotton 10 yard run (Bender kick)

LSE: Shouse 32 pass from Vick (Levi Cockle kick)

Individual Statistics

Rushing: LSW; Cotton 20-110, Seybold 15-62, Marisette 5-12. LSE: Taylor 29-104, Vick 3-25, Salomons 2-9, Boehm 1-4

Passing: LSW: Cotton 5-7-46. LSE: Vick 5-18, 87

Receiving: LSW:Tyrance 2-24, Seybold 2-14, Bender 1-8. LSE: Jackson 2-32, Shouse 1-32, Salomons 1-20, Taylor 1-3

A: 5,403

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444-1201, sports@owh.com