‘This is really special’ Schultz runs his way into Lockport history as Porters stymie Maine South for first Class 8A state title since 2003
DEKALB — Less than 10 months after he tore the ACL in his left knee, senior Ty Schultz ran his way into Lockport history.
Schultz piled up 231 yards and scored two touchdowns Saturday night to lead the Porters to a 24-6 win over Maine South in the Class 8A state championship game at Northern Illinois’ Huskie Stadium.
“I learned to don’t take football for granted,” Schultz said. “When I was on the sidelines watching us win, I felt good about it and happy for our guys, but I was also jealous they were able to play and I was standing there.
“This is really special. I think all of us are going to remember this and cherish this for the rest of our lives. We’re all going to be looking back at it years from now, laughing about it and sharing stories.”
It’s the first state championship in football since 2003 for Lockport (13-1), which completed a dramatic program turnaround under third-year coach George Czart.
The Porters went 0-9 in 2018 when this season’s seniors were freshmen.
Schultz, who had 32 carries, ran for an 11-yard TD in the first quarter. His 7-yard TD run with 11 minutes, 16 seconds to go in the fourth broke open a one-score game and gave the Porters a 17-6 lead over Maine South (12-2).
“He’s gotten stronger as the year’s gone on,” Czart said of Schultz. “Why not give it to the guy? He’s a threat to break it at any point. Ty is a special runner.
“Who knows what would have happened if he didn’t have the surgery? He would have had last season. He’d probably have 6,000 yards by now.”
Schultz missed all of the truncated spring season and the first two games this fall before returning.
“I don’t think I really had any doubts that I’d come back,” he said. “I knew I was going to miss my junior season. My mind was focused on getting back for my senior season as strong as I could.”
Lockport’s defense was dominant again, holding Maine South to 273 yards. The Hawks’ lone TD came after a seemingly huge play from the Porters turned into a bad-luck long gain against them.
On a third-and-11 from the Lockport 38, Ethan Gallagher sacked Maine South quarterback Rowan Keefe and forced a fumble, but the Hawks’ Mike Sajenko recovered the ball and dashed 24 yards. That set up a 1-yard TD run
first half as Trent Gabriele scooped up a fumble and ran 29 yards for a TD and a 21-0 lead.
After Ulatowski’s run with 3 minutes, 38 seconds left in the third quarter cut the deficit to 21-6, the Falcons tacked on a pair of TDs in the fourth to put the game away.
“We had our opportunities — everything was there,” Brown said. “We just couldn’t finish.”
Wheaton North advanced to the championship game after knocking off Brother Rice 45-27 in the semifinals.
The Falcons ended the abbreviated spring season with a 16-7 victory over Batavia in the DuKane Conference championship game played at Huskie Stadium.
“Playing here really helped us get a feel for the place,” said Forcucci, who completed 14 of 22 passes for 302 yards. “Our pregame was the same. We knew what to expect.”
The bend-but-don’t break defense on the first two drives in the first quarter also helped.
“That’s been a microcosm of this season,” Wheaton North coach Joel Wardynski said. “We might give up some yards but then we back teams up.”
This is the fourth football trophy brought home by the Mustangs.
The Mustangs won the Class 5A state title under Pat Cronin in 1978, the 7A state title under current coach Todd Kuska in 2006 and then were the 5A state runners-up under Kuska again in 2019.
Kuska said he told the players this loss was going to hurt, but he looked at the bigger picture of when the team had a 1-2 record and lost Brown to an injury for the rest of the regular season.
“Go back and rewind,” Kuska said. “We had a losing record and lost arguably the best player in the state. Nobody in their mind besides us believed we would rally around each other and make it this far.”
Ulatowski could help but agree with his coach.
“I’m proud of this team,” he said. “At 1-2, some teams would have backed up and quit. We didn’t do that. It would have been nice if we could have won it, but I’m still so proud of these guys.”