Lincoln-Way West grinds its way into playoffs

FLOSSMOOR – Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

For Luke Lokanc, the numbers 17-10 on the Homewood-Flossmoor scoreboard were the beautiful part of Friday night’s game, because his Lincoln-Way West team had the 17.

The Warriors outgutted the Vikings to capture their fifth victory of the season and with it, a Class 7A playoff berth. The 5-4 record may not look impressive, but the Warriors have come on in the second half. As a result, they’ve made the playoffs for the 11th straight time.

“We’ve been playing the playoffs for the last three weeks with how we started,” Lokanc said. “How we finished is how we wanted to finish: Strong at the end of the season to get ready for the playoffs.

“The growth and the progression has been unbelievable.”

West had lost its first three games, but has gone 5-1 since, and has allowed more than 10 points only once in those five games.

This was a defensive struggle marked by turnovers and one egregious miss by the officials that had both H-F fans and clear-eyed neutral observers howling.

In the end, two plays made the difference.

The first was a muffed H-F punt return midway through the third quarter. It ended up with a pile of Warriors atop the ball on the H-F 3, and two plays later, Justin Harris scored on a 1-yard plunge for a 14-3 West lead.

H-F closed the gap to 14-10 early in the fourth quarter on a 37-yard pass from Cameron Oglesby to Jeremiah Turner. Amazingly, H-F coach Terrell Alexander went for one point rather than two, which would have closed the gap to a field goal. H-F’s sure-footed Ian Hoereth had opened the scoring with a 43-yard boot.

Then came the other key play. After West failed to move the ball, H-F’s Kyle Lawson ran for eight yards to the 50-yard-line. He was clearly down when he lost the ball, but the five-man officiating crew saw nothing but West’s John Orrico force the fumble. That set up an eventual 36-yard field goal by Ryan Shelton for a 17-10 West lead with 7:44 remaining – and a deflated Viking sideline.

West quarterback Cole Crafton, one of two sophomores starting, completed only six of 12 passes for 83 yards, but that was plenty, given the plan to control the ball and let halfback Harris do the work. Harris ran 32 times for 92 yards, most always running between the tackles to protect the ball and burn the clock. Crafton had connected with Jason Harris, Justin’s twin brother, for a score in the second quarter.

“Each week you see more athletic skill, but even more, more leadership skill,” Lokanc said. “Kids come to rally around him.”

Crafton beat Jason Harris out for the starting job over the summer, but they collaborate like old pals, proven by the touchdown, in which Harris was able to get a toe down at the back of the end zone to give West the 7-3 lead they carried to the intermission.

“I just want to keep the seniors going,” Crafton said. “The week, it was kind of stressful, knowing that we had to win, but I thought we’d win, no matter what.”

The Vikings played tenaciously on defense, controlling the line for much of the game, though West’s cautious play, sending Harris inside more often than not, kept the play between the hash-marks.

West picked up four if its seven first downs in the game on its first scoring drive, a 65-yard march that finished with Harris’ acrobatic catch of Crafton’s pass deep in the end zone.

H-F outgained West 183-124. That mattered not to a bunch of happy Warriors.