Lockport earns statement victory over Bolingbrook

LOCKPORT – There’s no question that the Lockport football program has made major progress in recent seasons.

Lockport’s dominating 42-14 victory over host Bolingbrook on Saturday showed that progress is coming in big strides rather than inch by inch.

The Porters had a a dominating performance on both sides of the football, particularly on offense, where an almost perfect balance of power running sprinkled with just enough passing plays to keep Bolingbrook on its heels the entire afternoon.

It was Lockport’s first win against their conference rivals since 2015.

“We’re on the right track. But I hope too many people, especially our opponents, aren’t paying attention,” Lockport coach George Czart said.

Lockport (2-1) established its intent early. After forcing a three-and-out on Bolingbrook’s first possession, Lockport ran the ball five straight times with Andrew LoPresti scoring the first of his three touchdowns on the day from nine yards out.

After forcing another quick Bolingbrook punt, the Porters went on another run dominated drive, this time completed by a 1-yard plunge from Riley Pfeiffer to give Lockport a 14-0 lead.

Bolingbrook showed some signs of life in the the second quarter, getting its aerial attack clicking despite the heavy winds. A pass heavy drive was capped by a 2-yard scamper by Alex Tran to close Bolingbrook to within 14-7. But a rare Lockport diversion into the passing game, a 51-yard completion to Ryan Little, set up a 2-yard TD run from LoPresti.

Lockport did not throw much, but when it did it was extremely effective. Lockport completed four passes in the game, and they averaged 40 yards a completion.

“This is not an air express offense. We want to impose our will when we want to run it,” Czart said. “And when teams are able to take away our run, we want to be able to throw it. And we were able to do that. It’s a great feeling.”

Shortly after that LoPresti score, Lockport picked off a Bolingbrook pass deep in Raider territory, which the Porters cashed in with a touchdown on a 6-yard run from Pfeiffer.

Bolingbrook mitigated some of that damage by quickly marching down the field on three quick pass completions, the last of which was a 19-yard reception from Andrew McElroy for a score that made it 28-14.

But it was all Lockport in the second half. The Porters started the second half with another perfectly timed and executed pass play. Kyle Yehling slipped behind the Bolingbrook defense and made a spectacular one-handed catch on a slightly overthrown ball for a 56 yards for a score.

LoPresti would add his third touchdown of the game with a 9-yard run, which once again was set up by a long pass reception. LoPresti did most of the damage in the plays in between the pass hookups finishing with 152 yards on 32 carries.

“We really wanted to show that we can battle with the big dogs,” LoPresti said. “This was a really big game for us to pull off. We wanted to show we aren’t going to mess around with you.”

Bolingbrook (1-2) did manage to pass for about 300 yards in the game, but an inability to balance that with a running game left the Raiders in a tough spot.

Raiders freshman wide receiver Kyan Berry-Johnson had a big game, collecting nine receptions for 163 yards.