Football: Title shot is ‘for all of Bolingbrook’

Updated: November 22, 2011 6:40PM

The overflow crowd of Bolingbrook fans that witnessed Saturday’s Class 8A semifinal win at Naperville Central included the quarterback from the last Raiders team to play for a state championship, 18 years ago.

Greg Williams, a former North Carolina defensive back and current assistant coach with the San Diego Chargers, was among the first to congratulate quarterback Aaron Bailey on the field after the come-from-behind, 22-19 victory.

Bailey was quick to acknowledge that he and his teammates will be playing for the entire Raider Nation in the title game Saturday night against unbeaten Loyola.

“This is not only a state championship game for us, it’s for all the Bolingbrook Raiders,” Bailey said. “It’s for all of us.”

“This is all about them,” Bolingbrook coach John Ivlow said. “This is their shot and we’re happy for them.”

Bolingbrook lost 7-0 to Belvidere in the 1993 Class 5A title game, when there were only six classes.

“We haven’t been there since 1993 — that was the year I was born,” linebacker Austin VanMeter said. “It feels absolutely phenomenal. We have all of Bolingbrook behind us, all of their support we’ve gotten throughout the season.”

Bolingbrook advanced to the championship game despite playing without three-year starting linebacker Antonio Morrison, the Florida recruit sidelined with a fractured bone in his left foot.

“It’s not easy losing your leader like that,” Ivlow said. “That’s a kid who’s been at every practice, every weight room workout. It was the first game he’s missed in his four-year career.”

With Morrison watching on crutches from the sideline, VanMeter established his presence early in Saturday’s semifinal.

The 6-foot, 215-pound senior linebacker dropped running back Matt Randolph for a two-yard loss on Naperville Central’s first play from scrimmage. Two plays later, Randolph, the Offensive Player of the Year in the Du Page Valley Conference, was stopped a yard shy of the line of scrimmage by VanMeter and defensive back Phillip Wilson.

“He (Morrison) pulled me aside and told me I needed to be a leader,” VanMeter said. “So that’s what I did.”

Linebackers Andre Allen and Emile Wisdom had been splitting time on the field before Morrison’s injury, so the Raiders still had experience going for them Saturday with both players in the lineup.

On Naperville Central’s second possession, Wisdom got to quarterback Ian Lewandowski for a 3-yard loss as he recovered a fumble on the Redhawks’ 46-yard line.

“The defense didn’t lose a step, linebackers filling in,” Morrison said. “That’s great to see.”

When asked to sum up the season so far after Saturday’s victory, Ivlow replied: “Pretty darn good, 12-1.”

“We do have some unfinished business,” VanMeter said.

Where were you when?

Ivlow wasn’t a part of Raider Nation in 1993. The Bolingbrook coach was a free agent rookie fullback with the Bears out of Colorado State. He dressed for two games but didn’t have any carries, according to NFL.com.

Ivlow’s first year as Bolingbrook’s coach was 2002, when the Raiders lost to East St. Louis in the first round. Bolingbrook has been in the state playoffs 20 years in a row.

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