[Preview of my story in Inside—Booster.]
By Jack Lydon
The Lane Tech Champions (9-1) eventually woke up and put up thirty-four points in the second half of Halloween night’s IHSA 8A playoff opener to be beat Perspective-Leadership (5-5) 34-6.
It may have been looking past Perspectives or being tired after a long season or something else but it took the Lane Tech Champions a half of football to dial up enough intensity to beat the Perspectives Leadership Warriors Friday evening and win their first state playoff game in twenty-one years.
It was a scoreless tie going into the half. The Champions not only looked flat, utterly unmotivated, they were also playing poorly; dropping passes, missing tackles and committing penalties.
“I told them whenever you are ready to go make plays, we will win the game. That’s pretty much all I said. Whenever we are ready to make some players will be find a way to win this game,” Lane first year head coach Deshon Conley.
Lane’s junior quarterback Blake Jenkins struggled in the first half.
“I think I just tried to relax myself. First drive do this, second drive do this, get a big first half and I think I just panicked. I rushed myself,” Jenkins admitted after the game.
“Going into half, I kind of all right relaxed, [I told myself,] get your throws down, get your reads down, came back out here, and I relaxed myself. I was much more calm in the pocket. I made throws, made the runs that we needed to do and we got the win,” said Roscoe Village native Jenkins.
Despite the lopsided final score things look bad for the Champions when on the third play of the second half, Jenkins through a pass that was picked off by Perspectives’ safety Herman “Yanc” Yancy and returned 51 yards for Warriors touchdown.
After Lane running back Vernon Cole put the Champions tied the game early in the third quarter, it was Jenkins’ running that proved the difference. Jenkins put together back-to-back touchdown runs of 37 and 30 yards.
“No, I haven't I've never done something like that. I'm not the fastest of guys. I've never been the runner. So it was definitely different for me. So everyone is pretty hyped when I scored that [second one]. But yeah, it was definitely fun,” Jenkins continued.
“I told Blake at halftime, I said you’ve got a couple [chances] to make this day right. He came out and through pick six which we didn't want. But after that, I think he played pretty flawless football,” said Conley.
Jenkins’ touchdown runs come off the same play. He faked a toss to the right to the tail back, then kept the ball and ran to the left.
“It was a halftime adjustment. Shout out to my guys. that eyes and press box. They saw that whenever we did, they go toss that all their players crashed to the sideline. So we knew that we'd probably get it with the fake toss,” Conley said.
In recent years to Champions have fallen victim to powerhouse suburban teams. The last time the Champions, at the point they were still the Indians, won a playoff game was 2004 with a 39-20 win over York. This year, with an impressive 8-1 record, the Champions landed the number 27 seed Perspectives Warriors with a 5-4 record in the Chicago Public Leagues Metro South Division.
The Champions move onto host a second-round game against Oswego next Saturday at Lane Stadium. The game time has yet to be determined.
