The defense never rests for L-Way Central
NEW LENOX -- When you're facing a running back the caliber of Lockport High School's Dan Holman, you better play defense with all 11 pieces swarming to the ball.
Lincoln-Way Central followed that strategy to a "T" on Friday night en route to a rainy but huge 21-13 Southwest Suburan Blue victory over Lockport.
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• L-Way C. beats Lockport
The victory kept the Knights (5-1, 3-1) a game behind Lincoln-Way East in the conference race, while Lockport (4-2, 2-2) may be forced to refocus on the playoff hunt.
Porters junior tailback Dan Holman, the area's leading rusher and a man and a half with the ball in his hands, carried a swarm of Central tacklers with him all night long. He finished with 133 yards in 32 carries but had no runs of longer than 12 yards. That was significant; he came into the game averaging more than 10 yards per carry.
"They really have a good tailback, and our defense played great against him," said Knights quarterback Bryan Hennessy, who completed 8-of-15 passes for 135 yards and rushed for 66 in 11 carries, including a 20-yard touchdown scamper on a perfectly executed fake dive and keeper.
"We gave up some yardage, bent a little on defense," Central coach Tim Dougherty said. "But the guys made the stops they needed to make. I'm proud of them."
After Hennessy's keeper extended the Knights lead to 14-0 in the second quarter, Lockport responded just before halftime. The Porters marched 69 yards in 12 plays, with Holman and quarterback Kyle Billig doing much of the heavy work. Billig, who finished with 63 yards in 11 carries, threw an 8-yard screen pass to tight end Anthony Liutkus, who made a nifty run to the end zone to cut the deficit to 14-6 at the break.
Liutkus also was vitally involved as the Porters scored on their first possession of the second half. He went 42 yards on a tight end sweep to move the ball to the Central 2, and Holman scored from there.
Despite trailing 14-12, there still was 9:23 left in the third quarter, and Lockport coach Bret Kooi opted to take the single point. Matt Zeiler, who did not attempt the missed conversion earlier, booted it home to make it 14-13.
"Yeah, we thought about going for two," Kooi said. "But it was still early, and if we don't make it, we're two behind, and we didn't want to put ourselves in position where we were chasing points."
The Porters appeared on their way to taking the lead later in the third quarter when they drove to the Lincoln-Way 17. But Holman fumbled on a strip by cornerback Mark Krull, and cornerback Justin Kojder recovered.
That was one of a few plays where Kooi and the Lockport sideline did not agree with the call. They thought Holman was down before the fumble.
"That one really hurt," Kooi said. "We were in good field goal range there if we didn't get in.
"We also had the face mask that wasn't called early and helped take us out of a good drive, and their fumble on the sack in the second half where our kid picked it up and ran it in was called no fumble.
"But that's no excuse. We have to play better, take advantage of our opportunities and not put the game in the officials' hands. We have to overcome that."
Dougherty also mentioned a couple of calls/non-calls that went against the Knights and he thought were incorrect. Perhaps that part evened out.
Lockport had a little better of it statistically, finishing with 328 total yards and 18 first downs, while Central gained 267 yards and had 14 first downs.
Soon after Jeremy Wallace, Paul Burnson and Eric Simmons combined to stop Holman short of a first down on a fourth-down play with 2:22 left, the Porters ran out of timeouts. Lockport's defense backed off, allowing the Knights to score a touchdown. Central did that instead of taking a knee -- with Alex Russo rushing for his second TD -- and as a result led 21-13 with 1:31 left.
A touchdown and two-point conversion from a tie, Lockport moved into Central territory on Billig's 35-yard strike to Zach Teichmiller. But on fourth-and-5 from the 40, Wallace intercepted a Billig pass, and that was the game.
"You have to give them credit," Kooi said. "They're a well-coached team with awesome defense. They had 10 guys going to the ball and two who played real well against the pass."
"Lockport's size wore us down a little, but we definitely made him (Holman) earn his yards," Dougherty said. "This was a great win against a very good football team."
