Football: Lincoln-Way West Offense Picks Up Defense This Time

The football team hasn't had to score a lot of points this season to have great success, and that's because the defense has shined throughout the season.

Before the Warriors had surrendered just 50 points in their previous six games combined. And, if you throw out what happened during a 35-0 loss to Crete-Monee in Week 2, the Warriors had yielded only 58 points on the season.

On Friday night, the Warriors defense proved susceptible to some key plays—including those by Bradley-Bourbannais' Myles Clark, Myron Harris, Devail Bryant and Kian Minniffee—so the offense really needed to light up the scoreboard. Mission accomplished.

"We all believe in each other and we preach brotherhood," Warriors offensive lineman Jake Benson said. "If the defense needs the offense to step up, they step up, and if the defense needs to make a big stop, they make a big stop."

Lincoln-Way West (7-2, 6-1) marched down the field during its opening possession and turned a nine-play drive into a 7-0 lead after quarterback Kyle Millner (12-of-18, 150 yards, 2 touchdowns) found Jake O'Leary for a 5-yard touchdown pass.

"He's our veteran quarterback and he leads our offense," Warriors head coach Mark Vander Kooi said of Millner. "Tonight he made some big plays."

Bradley-Bourbannais (5-4, 4-3) had a chance to pull ahead 10-7 late in the first half but missed a 19-yard field goal. With just 2:35 remaining in the half, and 80 yards to go to find the end zone, Millner led the Warriors downfield, connecting with Adam Slattery and Nick Andrade on big pass plays before Nick Dangles plowed through the middle for a 3-yard touchdown with 35.7 seconds left.

"That was huge," Vander Kooi said. "They miss their chance to go ahead and the guys punched it right down the field before halftime."

Dangles finished with 148 rushing yards on 19 carries, despite leaving the game early in the fourth quarter after getting banged up. Rather than sulk and look at each other, wondering who would pick up the slack on the ground, the Warriors responded with a touchdown after Dangles went down. In fact, on the preceding play, Benson was roughed up and left the game briefly.

Despite seeing a couple guys down, Millner hooked up with Slattery for a 12-yard strike with 10:02 left in the fourth quarter to give the Warriors their biggest lead of the night, at 28-13.

"The offense played outstanding," senior defensive back B.J. Bello said. "They played a great game. To put up 28 points against these guys is great. They all did an amazing job."

Of course, the defense had its own job to do and came through by stopping the Boilermakers on two drives late in the fourth quarter. The Warriors pressured Clark to throw on fourth-and-2 with just under three minutes left to halt a drive. Then, after the Warriors failed to convert a first down on their ensuring possession, the “D” once again had to step up.

The Boilermakers didn't go down easily, driving down to the Lincoln-Way West 33-yard line with 18.4 seconds left. The Boilermakers tried three consecutive pass plays to try to put themselves in position where a touchdown and a two-point conversion would knot the score at 28-all, but the Warriors didn't budge.

"They got us on some trick plays, but our defense did good," Bello said. "We have a short-term memory and forget about the past and just focus on making the next play."

Of course, Bello and his teammates can file this one in their long-term memory as they are now SouthWest Suburban Red conference champs.

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