As a flag football player in first grade, Brennan Stolarek can remember being in the stands and watching Lincoln-Way East.
“I always had visions of playing on this field,” he said.
Eleven years later, the senior quarterback made his varsity debut Friday night, throwing for 106 yards and three touchdowns as the Griffins opened the season with a 35-20 nonconference victory over Crete-Monee in Frankfort.
After a few early misfires, Stolarek got into a groove for Lincoln-Way East (1-0), finding Jack Tremblay twice and Trey Johnson once for touchdowns.
“I would rate his performance a 10 out of 10,” said Tremblay, who has been teammates with Stolarek since they played youth football together with the Frankfort Falcons.
Stolarek’s opinion?
“I can’t be boastful about myself,” he said. “I’ll be modest and say I’ve got work to do. So, let’s go with and 8 out of 10. I definitely had some first-game jitters for sure. But once I settled in, I found my rhythm and I was good to go.”
Lincoln-Way East coach Rob Zvonar also was pleased, pointing out how Stolarek made the plays to lead the Griffins to the win over Crete-Monee (0-1).
Petey Olaleye finished with 96 yards on 13 carries and also scored for the Griffins, while Kamal Mukarram ran back an interception 30 yards for a TD.
“The QB was scrambling like he did the whole game and the ball got tipped,” Mukarram said. “I saw an opportunity to take it and my teammates made some awesome blocks for me.”
Crete-Monee was ranked second in the state by The Associated Press in the Class 6A poll behind Cary-Grove. Recent history shows the Warriors shouldn’t be worriers after losing to the Griffins.
In 2018, Crete-Monee started out 0-3 after a 41-13 loss to the Griffins and setbacks against Brother Rice and Morris. The Warriors went on a huge run that ended with a loss to Cary-Grove in the 6A state championship game.
The Warriors made some huge plays Friday as well. Lynel Billups-Williams escaped a pack of Griffins and found the open field for a 78-yard TD reception. He also returned a fumble recovery 52 yards for a TD.
“I like how we fought at the end and didn’t give up,” Billups-Williams said. “We showed we weren’t punks.”
Lincoln-Way East, which won the 2019 Class 8A state title and ran the table in an abbreviated six-game spring season, has a 21-game winning streak. The Griffins’ last loss was 26-16 to Loyola on Nov. 17, 2018 in the state semifinals.
Friday’s victory improved the Griffins’ record to 17-4 in season openers, including six wins in a row. What’s remarkable is Lincoln-Way East generally begins the season against programs with winning traditions.
From its first win in program history in 2001, a 21-20 victory over Bishop McNamara, the Griffins have opened the season with games against the likes of Maine South, Richards, Providence, Edwardsville, Carmel, Oak Park-River Forest, Stevenson and Bolingbrook.
The last time the Griffins lost an opener was a 14-13 to OPRF in 2015.
“The big picture is that the fans were here and we haven’t had a fall football game in almost 700 days,” Zvonar said. “We started 13 or 14 nonseniors and 17 or 18 nonseniors got a lot of playing time in.
“It was a great night. We know we were sloppy and we know what we have to do to get better. But we had a bunch of kids playing as hard as they could.”
Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
