Four Quarters in the Trenches: How Lincoln Fa'alafi and JSerra Outlasted Bishop Amat

By Will L | RepMax Media

A 6-foot-8 junior, a seven-point halftime hole, and a 23-play drive that broke a rival's will.

"We never back down from a fight." — Lincoln Fa'alafi, JSerra Catholic OT, Class of 2028

FIRST HALF: The Punch

Bishop Amat came out swinging. The Lancers hung 28 points on JSerra before halftime, and the Lions walked into the locker room down seven on the road in La Puente.

For most teams, that's where the story tilts the wrong way. For Lincoln Fa'alafi, it's where it started.

"It was a tough one in the first half," the junior tackle told Dwayne of Heavy Hitters Magazine and the 300 Plus Podcast. "At halftime, we had to step it up."

HALFTIME: The Decision

No speech gets recorded at halftime. But the answer showed up in what Fa'alafi said the Lions carried back onto the field.

"We had this mentality, realizing we're the Lions," he said. "Going into the second half, we've got to stay in the fight."

SECOND HALF: The Shutout

Bishop Amat didn't score again. Not once.

JSerra flipped the game by grinding, not gambling. The Lions converted three fourth downs after the break, according to the Los Angeles Times, and the defense held the Lancers scoreless the rest of the night. Fourth down is where offensive linemen earn their paychecks, and JSerra kept cashing them.

FOURTH QUARTER: 23 Plays

Then came the drive that ended it.

Twenty-three plays. More than ten minutes of clock. A drive that ended with Evan Leddy's 44-yard field goal and a 37-28 final. That's not a highlight. That's a sentence handed down by the big men up front.

Fa'alafi felt every snap of it. "That was a very long drive in that fourth quarter," he said, "so I'm glad we got out with the win."

POSTGAME: The Mic

Give a 360-pound recruit a microphone after a road win and you might expect him to talk about himself. Fa'alafi went the other way.

He thanked his coaches and "all my boys." He tipped his cap across the field: "Congrats to Bishop Amat. They put up a really good fight." He thanked God for the chance to play Friday night football. And he summed up the comeback in one line: "Everyone stayed in the game and everyone was locked in."

Dwayne had one more thing to add. He said he saw Fa'alafi pancake a defender in this one and made the pitch for the 300 Plus Podcast's Pancake of the Week: "Y'all better vote for Big Lincoln this week."

THE SCOUTING CARD

• Name: Lincoln Fa'alafi

  

• School: JSerra Catholic (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.)

• Class: 2028

• Position: Offensive tackle

• Size: 6-foot-8, 360 pounds (Rivals)

• Rankings: No. 3 offensive tackle in the class and No. 1 player in California (247Sports, per Sports Illustrated, June 2026)

• Offers: USC, UCLA, Notre Dame and Oregon (Rivals)

• Visits: USC spring practice in March; UCLA's spring game this spring

• The kicker: Sports Illustrated reported he is still relatively new to football

THE TAKEAWAY

The scouting card tells you Fa'alafi is one of the best young tackles in the country. The fourth quarter at Bishop Amat tells you something the card can't: when the game got heavy, he wanted the ball run behind him, and when it was over, he wanted the credit to go to his team.

Two more seasons of that? Defensive linemen in the Trinity League should start stretching now.

Your call: Is Lincoln Fa'alafi the best offensive tackle in California's 2028 class? Let us hear it in the comments.