CRETE — One play turned a tight scrap between Lincoln-Way East and Crete-Monee into an opening-night rout Friday night. The Griffins’ eventual 41-15 victory didn’t seem a likely set of numbers until the final minute of the opening half.
The Warriors were mixing it up with the Griffins, trailing 13-7 but moving the ball, until Crete-Monee quarterback Josh Franklin was picked off by Jordan Braithwaite on the East 34 with 46 seconds left in the first half. That ended Crete-Monee’s chance to equalize, if not go ahead on a conversion.
Instead, the Griffins capitalized on Braithwaite’s good work, with quarterback Braden Tischer finding Petey Olaleye in the end zone from the 10 with 7 seconds left in the half. Tischer’s 40-yard cross-field collaboration with Ryan Usher on the second play of the four-play series was the big gainer. James Kwiecinski’s two-point conversion rush made it 21-7 less than a in-game minute after the Warriors threatened to tie the game a second time.
“I saw him scrambling – we practiced all week on that,” Braithwaite said of the elusive Franklin. “Then he kind of stopped. I cut in front of (Lynel Billips-Williams) and caught it and ran out of bounds like they tell us to.”
Four plays later, Olaleye had the ball in the end zone and East had a two-touchdown lead that proved to be insurmountable.
“They were getting ready to answer back,” Griffins coach Rob Zvonar said of Crete-Monee. “We’ll not face a more elusive quarterback all year. Jordan did a nice job stepping in front, which got us the momentum.
“You hate to say that was the game, but it was a big part of the game.”
Until then, Crete-Monee mixed its plays brilliantly. After it, trailing by two touchdowns, Franklin was forced to pass more often than not. He was 6 of 9 in the second half, but the Griffins pounded the ball, piling up 121 of their 251 rushing yards after the break. James Kwiecinski, his nose bloodied early by a forearm shiver, ended up with 128 yards on 23 carries, including a pair of 1-yard touchdowns, plus a 30-yard reception.
“Props to the offensive line,” Kwiecinski said. “I love (this team). Last year, we were pretty much the same team. Sixteen returning starters, so we’re getting after it, for sure.”
When Kwiecinski didn’t have the ball, Olaleye did, running for 74 yards including a 5-yard score and catching two passes, one a 10-yard touchdown reception.
“We’ve played together a whole lot,” said Olaleye, a senior who has played with most of his teammates since the Frankfort Falcons days. “It sort of clicked in seventh and eighth grade, when we went to the Super Bowl for little league two years in a row. And in eighth grade, we won it.”
Thus, their calendar has the last Saturday in November circled in red.
Crete-Monee, the 5A-6A powerhouse which has lost four straight openers to the Griffins dating to 2017, crippled itself in the first half, committing 14 penalties for 103 yards, including five holding penalties in the first quarter.