Griffins put on an air show
Converted RB Walsh passes for 3 TDs as L-W East eases past Homewood-Flossmoor
When he was in fifth grade, Lincoln-Way East’s Sean Walsh wanted to be a running back. A youth coach for the Frankfort Square Wildcats had other ideas.
Walsh was moved to quarterback, and he has been at that spot ever since.
“As I got older, I found out I’m not the fastest out there,” Walsh said. “So that was the right call.”
Walsh made all the right calls Friday night. The 6-foot-1, 160-pound senior threw for 203 yards and three touchdowns as the Griffins rolled to a 31-0 SouthWest Suburban Blue victory over host Homewood-Flossmoor.
The game featured two teams ranked in the top six in Class 8A by Associated Press, with LincolnWay East (2-0, 2-0) at No. 2 and
H-F (1-1, 1-1) at No. 6.
Fully recovered from ACL surgery last year, Walsh hooked up six times with Max Tomczak, including a touchdown. Walsh added TD passes to Benjamin Ritter and Trey Johnson.
Walsh also drew H-F offsides three times with hand claps and by changing the play count in key moments during drives.
“That is a team-favorite play,” he said. “We practice it. We didn’t try it last week, so it was fresh off the books this week. It’s a good feeling you know you able to use different counts like that. I have trust in the O-line and the receivers not to jump.”
Senior running back Connor Kubik contributed a 29-yard TD run and Declan Emery kicked a 37-yard field goal to round out the scoring.
Lincoln-Way East opened the season against Bolingbrook and H-F, typically two of the strongest teams in the conference. The Griffins beat those traditional powers by a combined score of 73-14.
H-F was shut out for the first time since 2009, a span of 123 games.
“We were surprised by the scores,” Tomczak said. “We knew we were going to come out and play hard, but we didn’t expect it to be like this.”
With no postseason in this abbreviated six-game football season, the top prize for the defending Class 8A champions this year will be a conference championship.
The Griffins have put themselves in a good position after two blowout victories.
H-F did offer up a few offensive fireworks as quarterback senior Alexander Pratt completed 24 of 34 passes for 246 yards. Darnell Jones chipped in with 10 catches for 139 yards.
But the Vikings couldn’t score. Their closest shot came in the fourth quarter, but they fumbled at the Griffins’ 1 and Vaughn Teodoro recovered in the end zone.
“We’re playing with a really depleted offensive line,” H-F coach Craig Buzea said. “We started a tackle who never played offensive line in his life. We’re playing running backs at offensive line.
“We’re sort of beat up, and we haven’t been the same team we have been.”
Buzea, who’s in his final season at H-F, will coach in the fall at Crown Point, Indiana. He has coached the Vikings since 2010, featuring some memorable games against Lincoln-Way East.
Even though Buzea finishes with a 3-9 record against the Griffins, there was a spurt from 2013 to 2016 when the Vikings took three
out of four decisions.
“We’ve had some great games, and playing them has made me a better coach,” Buzea said. “Going against these guys — they are the top of the heap.
“They are who everybody wants to be, and we were lucky to beat them three times during my tenure here. They made us a better program, and hopefully they think the same of us.”