Jonas Williams to I’Marion Stewart connection leads Bolingbrook past Lincoln-Way West

NEW LENOX – A harvest moon hung over Lincoln-Way West’s field on Friday night, and Bolingbrook reaped the harvest, scoring a 46-6 victory to knock the Warriors from the ranks of the unbeaten.

Call the main reaper Jonas Williams, the freshman phenom quarterback, aided by a corps of sure-handed receivers. Williams riddled the West defense with 330 passing yards, 269 in the first half, with junior l’Marion Stewart catching nine passes, two for touchdowns, before the intermission. Williams threw a third touchdown pass in the second half, and Stewart caught it.

“It’s a great thing,” Stewart said after his 12-catch, 135-yard showing. “I knew as soon as he stepped on the field. You could tell he was mature. And he’s very humble, goes out and does what he has to do.”

Williams, receiving enough protection from his offensive line to give the defense of West (2-1) nightmares, picked out receivers left and right in going over 1,000 passing yards three games into his prep career. If Stewart wasn’t open, then senior Kaleb Miller (7 receptions, 89 yards) or junior Kyan Berry-Johnson (5 receptions, 42 yards) was, and most of the time, Williams found his target.

His one faux pas of the night, an interception by Tyler Mansker to end the Raiders’ third drive, was the outlier. Otherwise, any college scout on hand or watching online was likely drooling.

“It was a progression that started in the summer,” Raiders head coach John Ivlow said. “I saw him as an eighth-grader and he didn’t look like that.”

Training with former NFL quarterback Jeff Christensen added a different dimension to his game.

“It’s all falling in place,” Williams said. “It’s great having all these great receivers out there, and a great O-Line. He [Christensen] taught me to have good feet, staying calm and trusting my work.”

Asked if that was easy to do, Williams said, “When you do it every day, yeah.”

Bolingbrook (2-1) bounced back from last week’s loss to Public League stalwart Simeon with a balanced attack. Senior Joshua Robinson rushed for three touchdowns and 86 yards on 15 carries.

Plus, the Raiders’ defense was robust, holding West to 139 yards, merely 24 in the first half, and 22 overall on the ground. Sandburg, take note.

“We’re undersized but tough, gritty,” Ivlow said. “We’ve got to make up for it with quickness and stunting.”

For the Warriors, the bright spot in the SouthWest Suburban crossover came in the final quarter, when junior quarterback Cole Crafton engineered an 11-play, 50-yard drive culminating in Kemari Lewis’ 10-yard burst off left guard for the lone touchdown by the hosts. Crafton was 10-of-19 for 105 yards in the second half.

“We saw some good things on both sides of the ball, and some things we need to fix,” West coach Luke Lokanc said. “They’ve got a really good team. We’ll use this one to grow and get better.”