Jonas Williams hits 100 touchdowns, Lincoln-Way East cruises past Niles West

FRANKFORT – One thing came as a great surprise to Jonas Williams on Friday night.

It wasn’t that his Lincoln-Way East Griffins – the top-ranked and top-seeded team in 8A – scored a 42-0 victory over outmatched Niles West in their opening-round encounter.

It was that his three-touchdown pass performance means he has 100 career touchdown passes in less than three full seasons.

“I do? Wow!” Williams said with a smile as admirers huddled around him. “I didn’t know that.”

He enhanced his legend with an 8-of-9 passing performance in the first half, when the Griffins built their 42-point advantage. The 143-yard showing put that career total of his at 8,091 yards, which moved him into sixth place all-time among prep passers in lllinois. He’s 2,803 yards behind the 10,894 yards of leader Tyler Hutchinson, who starred for Greenville from 2011-14.

That mark, he knows about.

“That’s the goal,” said Williams, who also danced past a handful of defenders Friday for a 6-yard rushing score. “We prepare every week like it’s a championship week. We treat every opponent the same, because this could be our last game.

“The hardest part is practice throughout the week. Friday’s when I get to have fun and play the game.”

His excellence was on display from the first play from scrimmage. Williams noticed Talan White-Hatch was uncovered on the right side and whistled a pass in his direction. White-Hatch caught it in stride for a 60-yard score, and it was 7-0 after 17 seconds.

“Talan ran a great route, made a great catch and handled the rest,” Williams said.

That was the start of a short evening for the Griffins (10-0), who travel to Minooka (8-2) next week to meet the Indians, and a long night for the Wolves (5-5). The Griffins scored four offensive touchdowns, one on Dylan Weathers’ 38-yard punt return and another on Jeremiah Powers’ 83-yard pick six interception return of a Nicholas West pass.

“We were happy to play well and get some guys involved [in the running-clock second half],” Griffins head coach Rob Zvonar said. “The standard stayed the same even with the backups out there. We wanted to play good football and keep guys healthy.”

The defense, even with only one regular starter on the line – Jacob Alexander, who played the first two series – was as impressive as the offense, holding the Wolves to 56 first-half yards, 36 of which came on Aahil Kahn’s run up the right sideline.

“That’s a tribute to our defensive line coaches and being blessed with depth,” Zvonar said. “We talk to the team a lot about filling in, not just an individual, but everybody on the unit.”

Williams was near-perfect, adding touchdown passes of 11 and 23 yards to M.J. Schley and Zion Gist, respectively, on his last two throws of the evening. When Gist fought his way into the end zone with 5:22 left in the second quarter, Williams unknowingly hit 100 on the career leaderboard.

He’s the fifth player in state history to hit three figures in career touchdowns, joining Jordan Roberts (Aurora Christian, 2005-08), the aforementioned Hutchinson, Britton Morris (Poplar Grove, 2016-18) and Bradyn Little, playing for Quincy now. Roberts and Hutchinson ended their careers with 127 passing touchdowns apiece. Given that Williams threw for 67 in two years at Bolingbrook, that’s a number within reach.

“We knew they were going to be good,” Niles West coach Kyriako Anastasiadis said. “I’ve been coaching 10 to 11 years, and that’s one of the best high school teams I’ve seen. A lot of good talent and good coaches.

“But our team making the playoffs two years in a row is a testament to our kids. We’re moving in the right direction.”