FRANKFORT --Final scores can often be misleading and that was certainly the case Friday night with Lincoln-Way East High School's Class 8A playoff opener against Waubonsie Valley.
Although the Griffins' 35-17 victory over the Warriors may surprise some, it should be noted that East jumped out to a 21-3 halftime lead and stretched the advantage to 35-3 with one quarter to go.
Lincoln-Way East (9-1) now gets to host Mount Carmel in next weekend's second round of the playoffs. The Caravan claimed a 42-21 victory over Naperville Central.
In the first half, the Griffins piled up 295 yards of offense against Waubonsie Valley (6-4), which started the season 0-3 but had won its last 6 games.
"We saw what they've done in the last six weeks so we knew that we had our work cut out for us," East coach Rob Zvonar said. "We were happy to have a 35-3 lead in the fourth quarter. We weren't pleased with how we finished the game, but Waubonsie had a lot to do with that.
"We're excited about playing Mount Carmel. We won't talk too much about what happened two years ago against them since this is a new group. We know we're in for a great battle and hopefully we can do our end of it and make it a good game."
The Griffins scored on a pair of 80-yard drives during the opening quarter to grab an early 14-3 lead. The first series was capped by a 7-yard dart from Spencer Stanek (10-of-14 passing, 182 yards) to Justin Wittl (17 carries, 137 yards) just 3:23 into the game.
After Waubonsie pulled to within 7-3 on a 43-yard field goal from Mitch Ewald, East marched downfield again and scored on a 2-yard run by Kevin Starke (13 carries, 63 yards) with 1:56 left in the first quarter.
The Warriors threatened again on their next series, but Joe Kahlhammer (7 tackles) intercepted a pass at the Griffin 5. East added another touchdown with 1:42 remaining in the first half when Stanek hit Starke for an 8-yard scoring pass.
"Our O-line did really well this week," Starke said. "They practiced hard and came out really strong today and we got the job done."
The Griffins only needed to cover 42 yards to score again on their first series of the second half. Starke scored on a 9-yard run with 7:17 left in the third to make it a 28-3 game.
When they got the ball back, the Griffins covered 62 yards on a drive that was capped by a 36-yard scoring pass from Stanek to Eric Sawicki (2 catches, 74 yards).
In the final quarter, Waubonsie got a pair of touchdowns as Tyler Castro (21-of-39 passing, 169 yards) threw a 19-yard scoring pass to Malcolm Buckner and also ran in from 1 yard out.
East finished with 442 total yards with 260 of those coming on the ground on 47 carries. Other defensive leaders for the Griffins were Pete Merenowicz (7 tackles) and Sam Eble (6 tackles).
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