The stands were bursting, spectators jammed into makeshift seats in the aisles. The leftovers lined up fence-to-fence on the grassy knolls at the south end of Lashmet Field in New Lenox.
They came for a neighborhood brawl, No. 2 Lincoln-Way East visiting No. 11 Lincoln-Way Central, maybe a classic in the offing.
What they got for a while was a Knight-mare.
And the hosts woke up too late.
East staved off a fourth-quarter surge to come away with a 28-14 victory Friday night, but it was the Knights who were left to deeply rue taking the hospitality thing way too far for too much of the evening.
In all, Lincoln-Way Central (6-1) committed eight turnovers on the night, with quarterback Tom Huminek getting intercepted six times, and it had to be thankful that only two miscues turned into East scores.
Quarterback Anthony Kropp did the most damage for the Griffins (7-0), throwing for 179 yards and three touchdowns.
But after East’s Al Mau made it a 28-0 game in the third quarter on–what else?–a 50-yard interception return, Central registered a pulse.
Huminek tossed a 35-yard score to Austin McKeen, then Joe Messina tumbled in from 1 yard out to make it 28-14 with 5:40 to go.
“We let down in the fourth quarter,” Mau said. “We can’t allow that to happen.
“Fourteen points in a quarter is unacceptable.”
Central had a chance to get it even closer, but Messina was stopped inches short on a fourth-and-2 play with 3:32 left to go, the last gasp choked off.
“We were figuring run up the middle–they’d been pounding us all day,” East defensive tackle D.J. Pirkle said. “We called a stunt and got in there.”
As much as Central’s miscues led to its own demise, East’s inability to take advantage and blow the game open led to the dicey moments late.
Five of the Central turnovers came in the first half, but it was something of a miracle that East could only manage a 14-0 lead at the break.
Kropp had scoring tosses to Kyle Oskielunas and Gus Olofsson, but he also tossed a pick of his own, and the Griffins missed field goals of 46 and 28 yards.
It didn’t exactly come back to haunt them, but it didn’t help either.
And that led to this message from East coach Rob Zvonar to his crew afterward:
“We have a big word in our program: Finish. We didn’t do it.”
But close enough, anyway.
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bchamilton@tribune.com
