Turnovers help Raiders down L-W East

Bolingbrook's quarterback Brad Geever breaks a tackle attempted by Lincoln-Way East's Ryne Diehl.
(Michael R. Schmidt/Herald News)

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Bolingbrook didn’t win the statistical battle, but the Raiders won the opportunity battle — and that was enough for a 27-17 victory over visiting Lincoln-Way East in a Friday night showdown of Southwest Suburban Blue unbeatens.

‘‘The turnovers were the key,’’ Bolingbrook quarterback Brad Geever said. ‘‘Without them, this is a whole different game.’’

The Raiders struggled to move offensively but took advantage of the only running play that gained significant yardage when John Seigler broke three tackles and scampered 65 yards to the Griffins’ 9-yard line. Seigler was filling in for Jamel Martin, who left with an ankle injury.

Two plays later, Geever bounced up from the middle of the pile and ran around right end for the go-ahead score to give the Raiders (7-0, 3-0) a 13-10 lead with 5:41 remaining in the third quarter.

From that point on it was a case of the Bolingbrook defense capitalizing on five second-half turnovers and a total of six for the game. For example, Mike Hellams leveled Kevin Starke after a short completion and recovered the fumble at the Griffins’ 41-yard line. Hellams had two fumble recoveries and an interception in the second half.

‘‘We practice working on getting turnovers a lot,’’ Hellams said. ‘‘We picked up the offense, and then they picked us up.’’

Geever connected on a 37-yard touchdown pass to Alfonzo Sylvester toward the end of the third quarter for a 20-10 lead. He iced the game with a 36-yard scoring strike to Chris Williams with 11:27 left in the fourth quarter to make the score 27-17. That touchdown came after an interception by Marcus Daniels.

Quarterback Spencer Stanek threw for 347 yards and a touchdown to Alex Evans for the Griffins (6-1, 2-1), but the senior had three interceptions. Stanek also ran for 94 yards and scored on an 11-yard run.