FEAST OR FAMINE
Early turnovers cost reigning state champ L-WEast vs. Ramblers
Lincoln-Way East’s Jack Baltz believed, all theway till the end.
In a game where almost nothing went right for the Griffins, Baltz delivered one big play after another on their final drive.
The senior quarterback found Jamal Johnson for a 33-yard gain on fourth-and-7 from the East 19. Then he hit Johnson for 18 yards and completed a 21-yarder toMatt Judd on fourth-and-18 from the Loyola 46.
Baltz’s 10-yard scramble on the next play set up one last chance from the Ramblers’ 15 with 4.4 seconds left. Baltz found Judd in the right corner of the end zone, but a Loyola defender knocked the ball loose.
Just like that, East’s season was over, with a 24-16 loss in the Class 8A semifinals in Wilmette. Also done: the Griffins’ 26-game winning streak and their dream of becoming the first repeat 8A champ since Maine South won three in a rowfrom2008-10.
“The back shoulder (pass), Matt had been making some plays during that drive,” Baltz said. “I trusted him. He did great. He did everything he could have done. We just came up short this year.”
East (12-1) hadn’t scored fewer than 31 points or allowed more than 19 all season. But it became clear early on that this game was going to be different.
Two of the Griffins’ first three possessions endedwith turnovers. The first was an interception of Baltz and the secondwas a 17-yard scoop- and-score fumble return by Loyola’s Jack Burke for the game’s first touchdown at 2:51 of the first quarter.
“Definitely props to them,” Baltz said of the Ramblers. “We came out (in) a little bit of a funk.
Turnovers lost us that game.”
Late in the second quarter, a punt by Loyola (10-3) bounced off an East player andwas recovered by the Ramblers.
That set up the first of Loyola quarterback Jack Fallon’s two TD passes to Rory Boos. The 21-yard score with 41.5 seconds left in the half gave the Ramblers the lead for good at 17-13.
There were more bad omens for East. Dominic Dzioban, one of the state’s premier kickers, booted a 21-yard field goal but had an extra point blocked and missed a 46-yarder off the left upright.
“A lot of things that throughout the season had gone our way went the other way (Saturday),” East coach Rob Zvonar said. “Just some critical errors at critical times. But really I’m not going to sit here and blame our miscuesmore… than credit them for making the plays when they needed to.”
East did make its share of plays, too. Senior defensive back Kenny Palmer returned an interception 40 yards for the Griffins’ first TD.
Baltz completed 14 of 26 passes for 150 yards and Judd had six catches for 76 yards. Devon Williams, who had 24 carries for 86 yards, ran 11 yards for a TD to put East up 13-10 with 3:14 left in the first half.
Dzioban’s field goal cut the halftime deficit to 17-16, but the Griffins didn’t score again.
“(Saturday) was about them playing a little bit better than us,” Zvonar said. “Unfortunately, with what was at stake, it stings evenworse.”