Most high school football teams are going to lose if they give away four fumbles, throw two interceptions and have a punt blocked.
That's why Lockport coach Bret Kooi was breathing a big sigh of relief after his squad didn't fall to rival Joliet Township on Saturday.
Despite getting all of those chances and starting six possessions in Porter territory, the Steelmen couldn't get anything going offensively in the Southwest Suburban Blue game.
As a result, Lockport kept its playoff hopes alive and also defeated JT for the 13th straight time as it hung on for a 14-7 victory at Klootwyk Field.
The Porters (4-3, 1-2), who snapped a two-game losing streak, need to win one of their final two games to make the playoffs. They host Lincoln-Way Central next Friday and Bolingbrook a week later.
"We're obviously disappointed since we wanted to be playing with some momentum going into next week," Kooi said. "A win's a win, but we wish we were playing better football. Joliet always seems to play extremely well against us and also we're out of our element on Saturday afternoon.
"This was a case of winning ugly. We needed this one, but we're aware that we're going to have to play much better football. Lincoln-Way Central -- we know how important next week's game is. We're excited to be playing at home and we'll go back to work and see if we can get better."
While JT (1-6, 0-3) was only able to capitalize on one of its many gifts during the afternoon, the Porters made the most of its biggest break of the game which came on the second half kickoff.
With the score tied at 7-7, Lockport kicked off to the Steelmen to open the second half and managed to recover the ball at the Steelmen 19 after the hosts couldn't control possession.
After Ryan O'Donnell (15-of-71 yards rushing), who didn't play in the first half, gained 12 yards on his first carry, the Porters need just 3 more plays to get the go-ahead touchdown.
Two more runs by O'Donnell set up a 5-yard bootleg run to the left side by quarterback Kyle Billig and Phillip Varsek added the extra point to make it 14-7 just 1:51 into the second half.
The Steelmen were able to take the ball over in Lockport territory three times during the third quarter, but didn't even manage to get a first down on any of those series.
For the game, JT wound up with just 14 total yards and negative-8 rushing yards on 28 carries against the Porters, who stopped 17 of those runs for no yards or negative yardage. The 14 yards Lockport allowed was the third-lowest total allowed in the history of Lockport football.
"On Monday, our coaches came up to us and told us that we needed to decide whether we have a great defense or a good defense, but a good defense wasn't going to get us into the playoffs," Porter senior defensive tackle Daoud Salameh said. "We had very hard practices this week and I think that showed on the field.
"Our D-line wasn't stepping up the past couple of games, but I thought we were ready to play and did a real good job today by getting a lot of sacks. We stressed the fundamentals this week and it all came true. A win's a win and we'll enjoy it, but starting tomorrow it's a whole new game."
In the third quarter, JT's Chad Carlson recovered a fumble at the Porter 47, Mike Dziadyk returned a punt 20 yards to Lockport's 29 and Wesley Powell, who earlier intercepted a pass, recovered a fumble at the Porter 44.
But two of the series ended with punts and the other one was stopped on downs as the Steelmen only managed to collect a total of 12 yards on the three key possessions.
JT actually had a productive drive in the final quarter where it picked up a pair of first downs and got to the Porter 42, but it fumbled the ball away with 4:32 left and never got it back.
After losing quarterback Justin Stephenson to a broken fibula last week, JT coach Jason Aubry tried to find a spark by alternating John Woods and Jordan Broadway at quarterback, but the Porters shut down whatever the Steelmen threw at them.
"We're in a situation where we lost our quarterback, so are backs were against the wall and we could have just laid down and died and said that we weren't going to do anything," Aubry said. "But our kids came out and fought to the end and that's a testament to those kids for working hard.
"It was a tremendous team effort by our defense and they really came to play. Donnell White had a tremendous game, Michael Dziadyk was everywhere and Wesley Powell also did some great things. We had chances, but that's the way things have gone so we just have to get ready for next week."
The Porters scored on the opening series of the game when they moved 52 yards on eight plays to grab a 7-0 lead after Billig snuck in from a yard out with 8:41 left in the first quarter.
Late in the first quarter, JT took over at the Porter 35 following a blocked a punt by Dziadyk, who later picked off a pass. But that series resulted in three losses before the ball was punted away early in the second period.
Midway through the second quarter, JT's Jordan Bester recovered a fumble at the Porter 29, but the Steelmen came up empty when Tyler Kelly was short on a 46-yard field goal try.
The Steelmen finally caught a break that they could capitalize on when they recovered a fumble on a punt try at Lockport's 10. Five plays later, Woods ran in from a yard out to tie it at 7-7 with 0:32 left in the first half.
"We had hard practices this week and our coaches ran our butts off," Porter senior defensive end Barry Warnell said. "So, we came out today and did what our coaches told us to do. We ran to the ball and made the tackles that we were supposed to and everyone on our defense stepped it up.
"We have a good offensive team, but they struggled today. So, when they struggle like they did, we just know that we have to step it up. We beat JT today, but we're not going to think about this game any more and we're going to move on to Lincoln-Way Central and concentrate on that game."
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