Lane's Vernon Cole Carries Champions into Second Round of Playoffs

SPORTS SPOTLIGHT BY JOHN MONTGOMERY

Not even an eight-man defensive front could stop Lane running back Vernon Cole last Friday night on Halloween in the opening round of the Class 8A state high school football playoff. Cole, who has been recovering from an ankle injury, saw limited action but rushed for 77 yards and one touchdown, added a 36-yard punt return and briefly ran a Wildcat offense in a 34-6 victory over Perspectives.

“I would have to say honestly that he is our best football player,” said Deshon Conley, Lane’s first-year head coach. “And he is a better person off the field than he is a football player.”

Cole, who was a wrestler in elementary school, didn’t start playing football until he enrolled at Lane. As a senior, he has done it all to become one of the best players in the city, rushing for 855 yards and 11 touchdowns. He also has completed two passes in the Wildcat offense. And he also plays defensive back.

“He can play college football one day,” Conley said. “Some coaches like to see him play on defense. Some coaches would like to see him play on offense.”

Cole, a 5-9, 165-pounder who won the Public League’s 165-pound wrestling championship as a junior, has his own game plan. “I want to play offense. My dream is to play for (coach) Deion Sanders at Colorado. My favorite running back is Jaymyr Gibbs of the Detroit Lions (of the NFL).”

Lane (9-1), who have never won a state football title, recorded its first playoff victory in 21 years.The Champions will try to advance to the quarterfinals when they host Oswego (8-2) at 1 p.m. Saturday at Lane Stadium.

At the same time, Lane hopes to change the Chicago Public League’s statewide image in football.Last weekend, Public League teams went 0-15 against non-city competition in the opening round of the state tournament. Phillips is the only Public League school to win a state title, 4A in 2015 and 5A in 2017. Robeson was 6A runner-up in 1982.

“We know it is going to be difficult to win a state championship because of the schools in Class 8A and the competition,” Conley said. “However, I am confident the coaching staff can come up with a game plan against any opponent. I look forward to the challenge.”

One thing opponents must prepare to defend against is Lane’s Wildcat formation. The offense made popular by former Florida quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow.

“It was my idea to use the Wildcat,” Cole said. “I told the coaches that the holes were there. It has been a big part of our playbook.”

On Friday night, Perspectives tried to contain Cole. The first half was a nightmare as Lane was shut out, then fell behind 6-0 when Perspectives’ Herman Yancy scored on a 51-yard pass interception return in the third quarter. But junior quarterback Blake Perkins, who recently earned a starting position because Conley wanted to improve Lane’s passing attack, stepped up in the second half with touchdown runs of 37 and 30 yards and a 20-yard scoring pass to Aidan Andrich.

“I told the kids at halftime that when you are ready to make plays and block, you will win the game,” Conley said.

“I think I just panicked in the first half. I just rushed myself,” Perkins said.

While Perkins and Cole are the keys to Lane’s offense, the defense has been even more effective, recording five shutouts while not allowing an offensive touchdown last Friday. Cole should know about Lane’s defense. He sees it every day in practice.

“I think this defense has to be one of the best in the city and state,” Cole said. “The record speaks for itself. I don’t think anybody can really score on us.”

Against Perspectives, the defense was led by 6-3, 280-pound senior linebacker Daniel Howard, who is committed to Iowa State, and 5-11, 260-pound junior end Kanye Williams. They will be tested this weekend by Oswego (8-2), which is averaging 30 points per game.

This has been a rewarding, turn-around season for Lane, which was 3-6 a year ago. The players have responded very positively to Conley’s coaching philosophy.

“He has a great football IQ,” Cole said about his coach. “He is a leader on and off the football field.”

So is Cole.

“Lane is one of the top three schools in the state,” he said. “It is great being a student-athlete at Lane. Balancing academics and athletics make you a better person. It is always school first for me.”

“I am very proud of him,” said Mike Smith, Lane’s head of security.

So how far can this team go in the state playoff. Old-timers argue Lane’s 1980 team that lost to Gordon Tech in the Class 6A semifinals might have been one of the best teams never to win a state championship.

What will be the legacy of the 2025 squad? Saturday’s game against Oswego should provide some answers.

Lane Tech Rallies to Defeat Perspectives-Leadership 34-6

[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.

DePaul Prep Wins Trip to State Finals Defeating Perspectives 50-46

The DePaul Prep Rams rallied from ten points down late in the third quarter to defeat the the Perspectives Leadership Academy Warriors 50-46 in the 2A Super-sectional. The Rams will be going to the State Finals on Thursday for the second consecutive year and the third time in the last three finals.

What a game.

It started slow. Rams lead 7-4 at the end of the first quarter and it was only 17- 15 Rams ahead at the half.

That all changed in the third quarter. A 14-0 Perspectives run in the third put that Rams down 10, 26-36. Basically, the Warriors did what they are going at, they got some turnovers and rebounds and scored in transition.

It looked grim for the Rams.

But these young Rams showed a poise and determination that I wasn’t sure they had. Junior center Jaylan McElroy scored five straight points to close the third and open the fourth.

But it was the senior leadership of guard Maurice Thomas that rallied the Rams. Nine of Reece’s nighteen points came in the closing minutes including two free throws after a Warriors technical foul for calling a time out that they did not have. Thomas hit both from throws with the game tied at 46.

“I was just thinking about how the team needed the free throws. I was taking death breathes trying to stay call, just knock ‘em down,” Thomas told me after the game.

“We stuck together. We talked it through. We huddled. Through the runs they had, we stuck together and we ended up winning,” Thomas added.

Payton Kamin added two more in the closing seconds.

The Rams are going to State.

Simeon to Play Kenwood in City Championship Game Saturday

The Simeon Wolverines went to four overtimes, surviving four last shot chances by Curie to advance 64-60 to the Chicago Public League’s basketball championship on Saturday. Kenwood advanced as well with a deliberate but convincing 56-42 win over a newcomer to the City Championship final four, Perspectives-Leadership.

I have never seen four overtimes in a basketball game, until today. Four times Simeon had chances to put away the Curie Condors and four times Curie battled with a shot to win the game at the buzzer. Simeon’s defense wouldn’t allow it.

Curie’s head coach Mike Oliver called times out at that the ends of the second and third overtimes with under nine seconds giving his team not a lot of time to inbound the ball, crack the 1-3-1 pressure from Simeon’s Rubin twins to get up a game winner. Twice the Condors launched desperation shots that were nowhere close to going in, twice they didn’t even get up shots.

In the fourth overtime, Simeon managed to get a lead on Jalen Griffith and Miles Rubin’s free throws that Jeremy Harrington and the other Condors could not overcome.

Simeon’s Jalen Griffith finished with 21 points. Miles Rubin had 10 including two late free throws to seal the victory. Sam Lewis had 9. For Curie, Carlos Harris had, 17 Jeremy Harrington 16, Kros Barrett 13 and Shawn Brown 10. 64-60 was the final with the winner to meet the winner of the following game, Kenwood v. Perspectives-Leadership.

Mike Irvin and his Kenwood Broncos faced the unlikely upstart Perspectives-Leadership Warriors. On January 17th, the Broncos went into Perspectives’ gym and jumped out to a 31-7 lead after the first quarter on the strength of points in transition. The Warriors had no way to stop the lighting quick Broncos.

Until today that is. “We did a better job slowing down the game, playing a half court zone [defense] in the first half. It helped us out a lot. At home, we put a lot of pressure on the ball in half court. They got a head start on us. Today we were able to play a slower game. It worked in our favor in the first half. In the second half, it went the other way,” said Warriors head coach Mike Smith.

Even so, the Broncos were too much for the Warriors. The Broncos pulled away in the second had outscoring the Warriors 31-18.

Perspectives-Leadership’s impressive first half against Mike Irvin’s powerhouse Broncos squad bodes well for the upcoming IHSA 2A state tournament. The Warriors land the #1 seed in the Julian Sub-sectional B. Other top seeds in the Joliet (Central) Super-sectional include Phillips, DePaul Prep and Christ the King.  

Perspectives has taken a big jump in its first year in CPL’s Red Division becoming the first charter school to make it to the City Championship final four. The addition of transfers Jakeem Cole (for Leo) and brothers Gianni Cobb and Kamarion Cobb from Bloom raised expectations. Gianni Cobb and Jakeem Cole lead the Warriors with 16 and 14 points respectively.

Kenwood’s leading scorer was Jaden Smith with 14 points. Darrin “Dai Dai” Ames and 13 points despite sitting much of the second period with two early fouls. Tyler Smith had 12.

Saturday evening’s City Championship at UIC’s Credit One Arena—the old Pavilion, will be a showdown between the old and the new. Simeon head coach is on his victory lap as he plans to retire after this season. Mike Irvin and his Kenwood Broncos fancy themselves the new rising powerhouse in CPS. Never at a loss for words, Mike Irvin said, “we are excited.”

“This is what we worked for all season. We told everbody, we are a great team. We will be here. We changed his name to Disco Dai Dai [Darrin Ames] because he was dancing tonight. We are excited to be here.”

We got the matchup of the best teams. I guess we see how it works out.