Lincoln Park Survives Payton; DePaul Prep Falls to Benet; Amundsen Drops Lane Tech

[Preview of my article in this weeks’ Inside—Booster]

By Jack Lydon

The high school football regular season is in the books. Lincoln Park finished 8-1 with one of the the best records on the Northside. With a 6-3 record, DePaul Prep had its best season in thirty years stretched back into the Gordon Tech era. Amundsen continues its winning ways in recent years with a 5-4 record. All three teams’ season will continue with games in the IHSA Playoffs.

The Lincoln Park Lions (8-1) survived a late charge Walter Payton College Prep (5-4) winning 14-7 Saturday afternoon at Winnemac Stadium earning a #8 seed in the 7A IHSA football playoffs.

Lincoln Park jumped out to 7-0 lead on Payton with 2:15 left in the first quarter but stalled after offensively after that. Payton’s offense was just as toothless through three quarters of the game. But with 8:19 remaining in the game, the Grizzlies faked a punt and connected on a 21-yard pass for a first down on Lincoln Park’s 25-yardline. With 2:58 remaining, Payton connected a fourth down touchdown pass to tie the game at 7-7.

On the very next play, the Lions answered. Junior wide receiver and basketball player, Jayden Dickerson, in his first year ever playing football, took the kickoff for 72 yards to the Payton 8-yardline. The huge play, symbolic of the Lions’ Cinderella season, all but sealed the Lions victory. A few plays later, the Lions pushed the ball into the endzone for a 14-7 victory.

The Lions are the surprise team of the year. “I don’t think anybody expected us to do what we’ve been doing. I am pretty sure that if you took a poll before the season started, everybody would probably pick us to finish last, Lincoln Park head coach Andres Flores said.

Lincoln Park draws a playoff game against #8 seed Hoffman Estates Hawks (6-3) from the Mid-Suburban West conference. This is an interesting match-up for the Lions. A top team from CPS facing a fourth-place team from a good suburban conference. The Hawks’ losses this year came at the hands of Fremd, Palatine and Barrington—all ranked in the Super 25. The Lions will have their work cut out for them. But they will host the game, probably Saturday afternoon at Lane Stadium.

Lions head coach Andres Flores likes his underdog status. Before the brackets were announced, Flores said, “that suburban team is probably going to be licking their chops . . . We have been underestimated all year and our athletes have shown up all year. I know people are probably overlooking us despite the record. I think we will match up fine with whoever we get in the first round.”

On Friday evening, the 6-2 DePaul Prep Rams travelled to Lisle to face Benet Academy in the game that would decide the CCL/ESCC Purple Division. The Rams gave up five turnovers, two of which went for Benet touchdowns and came away short with a 31-24 loss.

“You can’t win football games when you have five turnovers,” said DePaul Prep head coach Mike Passarella. “And two of them went for scores.”

Despite the five turnovers, there is no quit in these Rams. The Rams tied the game at 17 each with 4:33 remaining in the game, only to give up an 80 touchdown on the very next play from scrimmage run by the Redwings.

The Redwings added another pick-six to push their lead to 31-17. No quit in the Rams. Fernando “Juju” Rodriguez connected on a 40-yard bomb to Justin Sterner to make the score 31-24. It wasn’t to be. The Rams came up short falling to 6-3 on year and losing their chance for Purple Division championship.

“We struggled today on a number of fronts. Miscues, penalties on the offensive side, big plays on the defensive side, You’ve got to take advantage of what’s given to you and we just didn’t do that tonight which is not like us,” said Passarella.

Even with the loss, the Rams are still in the playoffs. They earned the #9 seed in 4A and will play #8 Dyett Eagles (7-2), possibly next Friday at Gately Stadium. The Rams and the Eagles had no common opponents. The Eagles did not pay any ranked teams and their losses came against conference foes Corless and King.

The Amundsen Vikings (5-4) defeated the Lane Tech Champions (3-6) on Friday afternoon 14-7, earning themselves a playoff berth. It was the first time the Vikings defeated in the ten years that Amundsen head coach Nick Olson has been coaching the Vikings.

The Vikings lead the Champions 7-0 at the end of the first quarter and added another after a long drive late in the second quarter taking a 14-0 lead into the halftime break. Amundsen burned six minutes off the clock after intercepting Lane’s replacement quarterback on the first drive of the second half.

Lane’s usual starting quarterback Noah Mayra reentered the game halfway through the third quarter. Moving the Champions steadily down the field, Mayra rifled an eighteen-yard touchdown pass to fellow senior wide receiver Julian Vickery to get Lane back in the game 14-7.

The Vikings run game and defense proved too much for the Champions to overcome. Reggie Mitchell ran the ball for first downs and the defense intercepted Mayra midway through the fourth and recovered a Champions’ fumble with 1:13 on the clock lock up the victory and a playoff berth.

Vikings’ head coach Nick Olson was a bit emotional after the game. “We are graduating 15 seniors, this is a special group for me,” he said.  

The toughest playoff draw has to go to Amundsen. The Vikings will play Geneva (8-1) from the DuKane Conference, who are currently ranked #5 in Michael O’Brien’s Super 25 rankings of area schools.

“This will be the best team we have played all season. We are well aware of that. Once you get in the playoffs, everybody is good,” said Amundsen head coach Nick Olson.

“We are gonna just try and do what we have been doing all year and that’s trying to run the ball, stay ahead of the chains and keep the ball away from their offense.”

Amundsen’s Reggie Mitchell scores touchdown against Lane Tech.

Lincoln Park Edges Lane Tech 3-0 in Overtime

[A preview of my Inside-Booster article for this week.]

By Jack Lydon

Ugly isn’t the only word to describe Lincoln Park’s 3-0 overtime win over Lane Tech at Lane Stadium Friday. Painful, dreadful, tedious, boring, even shocking all work well. Neither team could do anything. Neither run nor pass. Penalties. Turnovers. Even a muffed punt. One team kicked the football just slightly better than the other. That proved to be the different.

The Lions improved their record to 5-0 putting them atop CPS’s Red Division. To do it in this fashion didn’t seem to bother Lions’ head coach Andres Flores.

“I don’t think they crossed the 50 [yard line] did they,” Flores said. “The defense has been playing lights out. We just play a different game every week. Whether it is the offense scoring a bunch of points or if it is the defense picking up the slack or the special team on PAT, we find a way to win this year. I think we blocked [Lane’s field goal to tie] with ten people. Which is the crazy part.”

The game started slow and slowed down. The Champions have been throwing more this year than they have in recent years. But that was not to be today. The wind and the Lions’ pass rush saw to that. There was a strong north wind blowing off Addison Street right in Lane’s face as they started the game working south to north.

Wind or no wind, the Lincoln Park defensive line completely controlled the line of scrimmage. Champions running backs struggled to even get to the line of scrimmage. Lane senior quarterback Noah Mayra was pressured on every pass play, sacked multiple times, intercepted twice and fumbled twice. Lane really struggled.

The only scoring in the game came in overtime. Lincoln Park lost the OT coin toss and ended up with the ball first. Starting at the ten-yard line, the Lions first three plays went nowhere. Two runs and an incomplete pass brought the Lions down to fourth and goal from the four. Flores sent in his kicker to attempt a field goal.

This was something of a controversial call. Even if the kick is good, all Lane would have to do is score a touchdown to win.

“[Lions’ junior] Noah Weiss is a great kicker. I trusted my defense. Defense has been lights out all year. Tonight they played a hell of a game again. I was a little worried because [Lane] can run a little bit. I felt that we bottled them up and shut them down. Hat's off to Lane, but it was our night,” Flores said.

Good decision. Weiss sent the ball through the uprights for the only score of the game. It would have been good from 40 yards.

Lane’s offense entered and took the ball at the 10. On first down, a three-yard gain to the seven. On second down, an inexplicable read option by Noah Myara was swallowed for a three-yard loss back the 10. On third and goal from the 10, Mayra tossed a fade pass to the right side of the endzone that had no chance to be caught.

Fourth and goal from the 10, Lane head coach Dedrick Dewalt sent in the kicking unit to tie the game and force another overtime. The dominant Lincoln Park defensive line would have none of it. A host of Lions collapsed the Lane offense line and blocked the kick to win the game.

Midway through the season, it’s clear that Lincoln Park is the class of the CPL northside teams. In recent years, Taft and Lane have been the top teams on the northside. Amundsen has busted into the top with winning records and playoff appearances. This year the Lions are king of the northside jungle. Okay, Taft is good too having lost only to an 8A school, Stevenson, on the road. Amundsen has two losses and Lane has three losses.

Lincoln Park has a 5-0 record includes wins over Phillips, Lane, Lindblom, Comer and Clark Co-op. The Lions will not face any top southside teams like Morgan Park or Whitney Young this season. Noble/Johnson, Westinghouse, Amundsen and Payton remain for Lincoln Park.

Asked if they can “win out,” Flores said, “We’ll take it one game at a time.”

“We’ve got Payton on the last game of the season. We have had a rivalry [with Payton] for a couple years back and forth. Last year they beat us. Year before that we beat them. They are a good team. Well coached.”

Lincoln Park Comes Back to Defeat Payton 19-7

The Lincoln Park Lions (3-1) came back in the fourth quarter to defeat Payton College Prep 19-7 at Lane on Saturday afternoon. The Lions trailed 7-6 midway through the fourth quarter and were struggling. The Payton Grizzlies were struggling too without two impact players and looked to runout the clock. It wasn’t to be. The Lions blocked a punt and recovered the ball deep in Grizzles territory with a chance to take the lead.

“That was a huge play. We told the guys that someone is going to have to make a play, especially on defense the way the game was going for us. I didn’t expect it to happen there but [we] blew it up and that was huge,” said Lincoln Park’s first year head coach Rick Ludwig.

“We were coming off a down year. Early in the game, things didn’t go our way. You could see some of the guys with their heads down. After [the blocked punt], they looked like a different team. That was the most excited that I have seen them. They were very confident. That’s a huge win for our program.”  

The Lions have a lot of personality and a lot of talent but they also made a lot of mistakes.

“That’s what we are trying to fix,” Ludwig continued.

“The only ones that can really beat us are ourselves and we are doing a very good job of doing that.”

That’s actually true. The Lions only defeat this year was a forfeit loss to Von Steuben in the first game of the year. Then followed two blowout wins against Gage Park and Kennedy. With thi win against Payton, Lincoln Park sits atop the CPS Red-West conference with an excellent chance to make the IHSA Playoffs despite some tough upcoming games against Noble/Bulls and Raby.

The Payton Grizzlies came into the game with an impressive 2-1 record and even in defeat, the Grizzlies played DePaul Prep tough in the season opener. Although coach Craig Knoche’s Grizzles squad is small, it is lead by seniors Charlie Newton, an expected Ivy League player, and Kyle Osterman. This combination leads Payton’s explosive passing attack.

Despite the offensive excellence on both teams, it was a defensive struggle in the first half because of penalties and turnovers. Lincoln Park’s Gus Wentland opened the scoring late in the first half on post pattern touchdown catch.

After the kickoff, Payton answered immediately with a simple dive play up the middle to Payton senior running back Morrison Giggetts. Running through a gaping hole in the line, Giggetts took the ball up the middle and weaved his way down the field for an 80 yard touchdown run. With the PAT, the Grizzlies went into the half time break with a 7-6 lead.

That’s where it stood through the third quarter and half the fourth quarter. Neither the Lions nor the Grizzlies could get anything going on offense. Payton’s efforts were severely hampered when key two-way starters Newton and Giggetts both left the game with injuries and did not return.

The block punt and new life breathed into the Lions. Senior running back Anius Finch scored on a nine-yard run to give the Lions a 12-7 lead.

After getting the ball back, on fourth down outside the 20-yard line, Lions’ sophomore wideout Jerrell Benson caught a slang pass at the ten, broke a tackle and stretched out to score a touchdown and put the game out of reach.

Payton senior announcer Theo Geovanis-Schwartz live-streamed the game on Payton’s You Tube channel, “Payton Sports.” The game will be available to watch on that channel as some point.

North Lawndale Edges Lincoln Park 61-58

The Lincoln Park High School Lions boys varsity team had its home opener on Mar. 3, against North Lawndale in another down-to-the-wire affair. This time it was the visiting North Lawndale Pheonix that would edge the home team for a 61-58 victory.

No opening game jitters in this one. Both teams came out running and scoring. Lincoln Park jumped out to a 23-12 first quarter lead largely by senior center Sincere Malone controlling the boards.

Lincoln Park lead 42-35 at the half.

North Lawndale battled back in the second half eventually taking a 57-56 lead with 4:24 left in the fourth quarter.

“In the second half, we ran into a little foul trouble with our big fellow [senior center Sincere Malone] in the first half,” said new Lincoln Park head coach Antwon Jennings.

“We adjusted. We went from playing man-to-man to zone, just trying to give them a different look,” Jennings added. “We were just out of position. [North Lawndale’s] second chance shots killed us.”

Even after losing its lead the Lions battled the Phoenix in back-and-forth action late in the fourth.

Lincoln Park was in position to tie several times late in the game only done three in the last minute. The Lions had two open looks to tie late but two three pointers missed. A turned over by Lincoln Park with 15 seconds remaining sealed the victory for North Lawndale.

When asked what he told his players after missing two shots to tie, Jennings said, “Keep shooting the ball. I feel like I’ve got two of the best shooters in the City in Chris [Hammonds] and Julio [Montes].

“I told Julio I will live with him taking those shots. You gotta take ‘em,” Jennings added. “I wouldn’t do it any different.”

Final was North Lawndale 61, Lincoln Park 58.

This is something of a disappointing 0-2 start to the season for Lincoln Park who had a blowout loss to Whitney Young on Feb. 26. Antwon Jennings comes to Lincoln Park this year from the staff of Morgan Park under legendary coach Nick Irvin. Coach Jennings spent years under Coach Irvin including Morgan Park’s two 3A state championships.

Nevertheless, the future is bright for the Lions who take on archrival Lane Tech on Friday, March 5, at Lane.

Whitney Young Hold Off Lincoln Park 56-50

The #5 Whitney Young Dolphins (3-1, 3-0) holds off #10 Lincoln Park (7-1, 3-0) 56-50 in the the painfully loud gym at Lincoln Park on Friday afternoon (December 13, 2019).