Heading into the postseason without star junior quarterback Phillip Turner and one of their trusted running backs, senior Zayden Henley, the Kankakee football team knew that it would have to get creative on offense and rely a little bit more on its stingy defense if the Kays want to make a deep run through the IHSA Class 5A field as the south bracket’s No. 4 seed.

In Saturday’s first-round home game against No. 13 Lemont, they did just that.

Thanks to sparks from four big plays – a second-quarter Zyon Thomas interception inside the 10-yard line followed by a Dayshawn Brown 83-yard reception and explosive fourth-quarter touchdowns from Kymani Billings and Ezekiel Sherrod on 3rd-and-longs – and a dazzling defensive effort, the Kays pulled away for a 19-3 win.

“Football is a game of mojo,” said Kays coach Ed Hazelett, who scored his first career playoff win. “When mojo’s on your side, you’re unbeatable. Those plays get us going, and once we get a spark it’s just full blaze.”

Defenses dominated much of the first half, but as the second quarter reached the midway point, the visitors began to compile a solid drive behind their bruising ground game. Faced with a second and goal at the Kankakee 8-yard line, Mike Preuss’ pass hit off the hands of Michael Kalkowski and into the air, where Kays junior linebacker Zyon Thomas snared it for an interception at the 5.

Once Thomas saw the ball deflect off Kalkowski’s hands, his thought process got pretty simple.

“See the ball, get the ball,” Thomas said. “Be a ballhawk.”

Thomas’ 10-yard return set the Kays up at their 15-yard line with just under four minutes left in the half, but they only needed about a minute. On the second play of the drive, Cedric Terrell III found Brown for a short reception with space to operate. He carved through several Lemont defenders and was eventually taken down at the 2-yard line for an 83-yard catch. Terrell III took the next play in to give the Kays a 6-0 lead at the break.

“I’ve been telling Zyon every week that he’s a playmaker, a ball hawk, and he turned the game around with that,” Terrell III said. “And Dayshawn, he did a great job of stepping up.”

Neither team could find much offense in the third quarter, as the scoreboard remained unchanged until Lemont got on it with Brett Tucker’s 33-yard field goal with 8:43 to go.

On the ensuing Kankakee drive, Billings took a handoff off the left side, cut to the right and turned on the jets for a back-breaking 62-yard score to make it 12-3 with 5:10 to go.

After dropping an open pass on third down in the third quarter, Billings, one of several sophomores on the roster, said he had to make up for his mistake.

“As a sophomore on varsity, it goes through my head,” Billings said. “That pass I dropped, I made up for it. I had to make it up for my quarterback.”

The Kankakee defense forced a three-and-out on the ensuing drive, and when the Kays took back over, Terrell III hit a home run on a 54-yard pitch and catch to Sherrod on third and 10 for the game’s final score with 2:59 left.

Like Billings, Sherrod had dropped a potential big play earlier in the game and also kept confidence in himself to deliver in the clutch.

“Next play, that’s all I know,” Sherrod said. “Coach said to keep my head up, look for the next play. I’m a playmaker.”

The Kays (7-3) mustered 271 total yards as Terrell III went 4 for 15 for 140 yards, a touchdown and two picks to Revin Maldonado and Ethan Schikora. Billings led the backfield with five totes for 72 yards and a score while Jaymari Hairston had eight attempts for 45 yards.

Lemont (5-5) was limited to 186 yards. Preuss was 12-of-24 for 67 yards and a pick. Aiden Rudman had 22 rushes for 98 yards and caught seven passes for 47 yards as the Kankakee defense stopped Lemont on all three of their fourth-down conversion attempts.

“That’s how we’re taught to play here at Kankakee and that’s what we’re going to do week in and week out for the next five weeks,” Thomas said of the Kankakee defense. “We’re coming for state, just know that.”

In a game that was much closer for most of the day than the final score indicated, Lemont head coach Willie Mays knew his team was right there against one of Class 5A’s top teams.

“Hats off to Kankakee. They brought it and our kids brought it as well,” Mays said. “ … I’m super proud of our staff, super proud of our seniors and the rest of our kids, the juniors and sophomores who stepped up for us. This one hurts because I thought we could have got it done, but unfortunately it just didn’t roll that way."

The Kays will host a second-round game against No. 5 Providence on Saturday. In a meeting that will pit two teams that spent the season as teams ranked in the Class 5A AP Poll, Terrell III said the Kays just have to focus on themselves for the next week.

“We’re going to go into practice and work hard, and I’ve got us against anybody,” Terrell III said. “We’re going to treat this week like it’s state.”