Hinsdale Central 17, Brother Rice 14

Hinsdale Central's Mick Culligan carries the football during Saturday's 17-14 quarterfinal victory at Brother Rice. (Jeff Krage/For The Doings)

November 15, 2008 By Bill Stone -- Pioneer Press

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Junior David Lutz won’t soon forget his first field goal — and neither will the Red Devils’ fans.

Lutz’s dramatic 25-yard field goal with 17.8 seconds remaining lifted the Red Devils to a 17-14 victory at Brother Rice in the Class 8A state quarterfinals in Chicago.

Hinsdale Central (10-2), the No. 9 seed in the lower bracket, will play host to No. 6 Mt. Carmel (10-2) in the state semifinals Friday, Nov. 21, or Saturday, Nov. 22.

The Red Devils, who have never played in the state title game, last reached the state semifinals in 2005 and had lost in the second round each of the past two seasons, including last year’s tough 21-20 home loss to Brother Rice (9-3).

Lutz’s kick capped an arduous, 65-yard drive that included two fourth-down conversions and lasted nearly seven minutes. The Crusaders’ more renown kicking game nearly forced overtime, but Sean Noble’s 55-yard attempt with the wind on the last play of the game landed short in the middle of the end zone.

Garrett Kawa handles the Red Devils’ longer field-goal attempts, but just before halftime, Lutz had his first field-goal try of the season — a 23-yarder that was blocked by Andrew Weishar.

Lutz’s game-winner landed in the middle of the crossbar and rolled through the uprights.

“It was seriously a matter of inches I made it by, but luckily it went in,” Lutz said. “I was really nervous, but I knew the line could block. I knew Charlie (Herr) could snap and I knew Brian (Connor) could hold it so all I had to do was kick it and I did.

“I’m really happy that it came down to special teams because last year that’s how we lost this game to Brother Rice. We had a missed field goal. We had a blocked extra point. For us to win by special teams this year was really special.”

Hinsdale Central junior quarterback John Whitelaw, often a game changer, proved to also be a momentum changer in the third quarter right after the Red Devils fell behind 14-7. On fourth-and-4 from the Crusaders’ 30, Whitelaw rolled left, sprinted and split two diving defenders at first-down yardage and then followed a key block by Mick Culligan down the sideline to get all the way to the 4. Rich Zajeski later scored his second TD of the game on a 3-yard run to tie the game 14-14 with 16.7 seconds left in the third quarter.

Hinsdale Central led 420-186 in yards gained, but most of the game was a string of strong drives that came up empty. Whitelaw rushed for 151 yards on 26 carries and was 8-for-15 passing for 145 yards. Zajeski had 107 yards on 19 carries and a 44-yard reception, and Alex Kirk caught three passes for 55 yards.

The game-winning drive came after two three-and-outs by the defense and a 29-yard pass play to Kirk that ended with a fumble recovered by the Crusaders’ Frank Renardo at the Brother Rice 15.

The Red Devils did take a 7-0 lead with 3:41 left in the first quarter on a 3-yard run by Zajeski thanks to Whitelaw’s 46-yard punt that rolled out of bounds at the 3 to pin the Crusaders. Brother Rice answered on its ensuing drive with 11:26 left until halftime on a 22-yard TD pass from quarterback Tom Gibson to Kevin Koehler.

The Red Devils reached the Brother Rice 25 on their first drive, but holding and personal-foul penalties on the same third-down play pushed them back.

Prior to the blocked field goal, another first-half drive stalled on downs at the 14 with Whitelaw’s fourth-and-4 rush falling 1-yard short. On the Red Devils’ first play of the second half, Zajeski had a 17-yard run across midfield only to have the ball knocked loose and recovered by the Crusaders’ Joe Gallagher.

Just minutes later, Gallagher also downed a great punt by Minnesota-bound Dan Orseske that pinned the Red Devils at their 1. The Crusaders got the ball back on a punt at the 30 and took the lead six plays later on an 11-yard run by Martez Walker.

Gibson completed 8 of 16 passes for 85 yards. Walker rushed for 38 yards on eight attempts.