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Football: WW South defense too much for Lincoln-Way East
Updated: November 4, 2011 10:26PM
You wouldn’t think any defender would look forward to playing against Lincoln-Way East’s high-octane passing game.
But Wheaton Warrenville South’s Jack Lipinsky couldn’t wait for Friday night. By the time this Class 7A second-round game was over, you could understand why.
Lipinsky had 2.5 sacks to highlight a lockdown defensive effort for WW South, which made Sam Prete’s second-quarter touchdown catch stand up for a 7-0 win in Frankfort.
“The defensive line, we’ve been waiting for this all week,” Lipinsky said. “We haven’t seen a passing team for a long time and we got excited.”
It was the 12th straight IHSA playoff win for the two-time defending Class 7A champs, who have won seven in a row overall after starting 1-3. The Tigers (8-3) will play the winner of Saturday’s East St. Louis-Oswego game in next weekend’s quarterfinals.
Lincoln-Way East (10-1) lost in the second round for the fourth straight season despite having a passing game keyed by quarterback Blake Winkler, who threw for 30 touchdowns, and Illinois-bound receiver J.J. Robertson.
Winkler completed his first nine passes for 83 yards, but the Griffins missed field goals of 38 and 46 yards on their first two possessions and Zach Kyllonen picked off Winkler at the goal line with 51 seconds left in the first half. Winkler finished 13 of 17 passing for 129 yards, but he was sacked six times.
“He didn’t have anywhere to go with the ball,” Lipinsky said. “He had to pull it down and try to run and that’s where we got a lot of sacks.”
“When we got in the red zone three times in the first half and came away with zero points, we didn’t want to think that was going to be the difference in the game,” Lincoln-Way East coach Rob Zvonar said. “Our seniors deserved better than this for sure. I’m a little bit at a loss for words. I know heartache and disappointment are part of athletics. ... it’s going to be awful painful for a while, but we’ll be all right down here.”
Lincoln-Way East’s defense was excellent as well. It held Northwestern-bound Dan Vitale to 22 yards on 19 carries and limited the Tigers to 121 net yards.
But WW South won the field possession battle early thanks to the punting of Nick Campos, whose 56-yarder pinned the Griffin back on their own 3-yard line. After a three-and-out, Mike Shelton returned a 26-yard punt 14 yards to the Lincoln-Way East 24. Two plays later, Thaddeus Armstrong hit Prete over the middle for a 16-yard scoring pass with 6:33 left in the second quarter.
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