In the second half, Batavia surged to top Lincoln-Way West 25-21 – Shaw Local

NEW LENOX – Batavia coach Dennis Piron argued there was no electric halftime speech or mountain of wisdom imparted to his team during halftime Saturday afternoon in the second game of Class 7A vs. Lincoln Way West.

And maybe that’s true.

But whatever message was being sent to the Bulldogs was certainly loud and clear as Batavia made a frantic second-half effort to run away with a 25-21 win over Lincoln Way West and advance to the quarterfinals.

Batavia (10-1) hosts Downers Grove North in the next quarterfinal round. Downers Grove North cruised to a 13-10 victory over Fenwick on a late field goal.

Lincoln-Way West closes out the season with a 7-4 record.

“I think we just woke up a little bit,” Piron said of the halftime break. “We had a chance to score right before half-time and even though we didn’t, it was kind of like ‘Come on!’ I said, ‘Guys, we should probably have 21 points right now.’ … Let’s just get it done and be done with it.”

Batavia didn’t do much of that in the first half, while Lincoln Way West thrived. The Bulldogs turned the ball over on downs on their first possession, and the Warriors made a quick run down the field, scoring on a 44-yard touchdown pass from Chase Gatfleisch to Chase Markowitz.

Markowitz then picked off an interception in the Batavia red zone, and while the Warriors didn’t make it any points, they added another on an 11-yard touchdown pass from Gatfleisch to Markowitz. A few minutes later, Hatfleisch hit DeAndre Coates for a 10-yard score to give Lincoln Way West a 21-0 lead.

Batavia’s offense continued to sputter and looked like it might be shut out in the first half when the drive stalled at the Lincoln-Way West 24-yard line. But Batavia pulled a fake punt and it worked like a charm. Isaiah Brown threw a punt to Keegan Harp, and Harp scampered 76 yards to cut the deficit to 21-7.

Batavia then quickly forced a punt and loosened the tackle on sophomore quarterback Michael Vander, who immediately completed a 56-yard pass to Brown and another 20-yard dart to Grayson Kelly inside the Lincoln-Way West 5-yard line, but halftime expired before , as the Bulldogs were able to try to get out of another grip.

It wasn’t a scoring race, but it gave Batavia the belief that they could move the football.

After the break, it happened just like that.

Vander led a rush that ended with a 14-yard touchdown pass to Brown (eight receptions, 179 yards). The extra point attempt was blocked, but Batavia was officially within striking distance, trailing 21-13.

Batavia mounted another serious threat as the third quarter wound down, moving the ball deep into Lincoln-Wei-Wei territory. But with the ball sitting at the 2-yard line on the final play of the quarter, Nathan Whitwell fumbled the ball on an extra-yard plunge in what turned out to be a key game-changing moment.

But all that seemed to do was inflame Batavia even more. Lincoln-Way West didn’t want to do much on the next possession and gave the ball back to Batavia, who went on a long, hard drive that included two big drives between Vander and Brown before Batavia scored another for 3:41 to play. – Vander completes a 6-yard pass to Lucas Stevenson.

However, Batavia again missed the conversion and trailed 21-19.

The Bulldogs quickly forced a 3-and-out, and Vander, who almost inexplicably wasn’t moved into the varsity game until Week 7, immediately went back to work.

He hit Brown for 5 yards, and another 15 was tacked on by a Lincoln-Way West penalty. So, after setting up shop at the Lincoln-Way West 48-yard line, Vander let one rip to Brett Berggren. He fell into the end zone and became decisive.

“We all wanted to get this win,” Vander said. “No one fell down, no one put their heads down, everyone picked each other up, being great teammates. And then we just came here and left 25 unanswered.”

Lincoln Way West had just over two minutes left to try to respond, but the offensive faucet that was wide open in the first half was shut off for much of the final two quarters. The Warriors completed four incompletions and Whitwell, who got off to a slow start but finished with a 98-yard run, gave the Bulldogs a first down and a stunning victory.

For Lincoln-Way West, the loss was extremely hard to swallow.

“This is a second-round football game that very easily could have been a semi-final game or a final. The two best teams in Class 7A. I truly believe that, and I know Batavia knows that,” Lincoln-Way West coach Luke Lokantz said. “I wish these guys would have played another game together over the next week, but we got a semifinal game, a final game in the second round”.