Andrew Lyne’s game-winning TD catch in final seconds caps off Hinsdale Central’s comeback over OPRF

HINSDALE – Hinsdale Central junior Andrew Lyne won’t soon forget his only pass reception Friday. Neither will the Red Devils’ energized Homecoming crowd.

Lyne caught the winning 9-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback Billy Cernugel with 22.4 seconds left in the Red Devils’ 22-19 West Suburban Silver victory over Oak Park-River Forest after trailing 19-7 at halftime.

“That was the one (catch) that matters,” Lyne said with a big smile. “Great (feeling). You see everyone jump up and down. It was awesome. Definitely one of the best moments of my life, I guess.”

The Red Devils (3-2, 1-1 in Silver) regained the ball with 3:51 left and drove 66 yards in 3:28 after the Huskies (2-3, 0-3) stopped their previous two drives inside the 10-yard line. OPRF had seized the momentum with a 19-point second quarter, climaxed by a 24-yard TD pass from quarterback Jack Gooch to John Shepard 26.6 seconds before halftime.

“That was such a big win in terms of finding ourselves and what we’re capable of. We’ve just got to find some consistency. But they fight,” Hinsdale Central coach Brian Griffin said. “There’s teams that several times during that game that would have quit or packed it in and this group didn’t. You talk about a team win and that was truly a team win, the number of kids that made plays.”

With 11:50 left, the OPRF defense stopped Cernugel one yard short on his fourth-and-2 keeper from the 10. Three plays later, the Red Devils’ Kevin Connor returned an interception to the 18. The Huskies’ Khalil Nichols then intercepted three plays later at the 6. But the Red Devils kept coming.

“At halftime, we just said believe in ourselves. That’s all we have to do,” Hinsdale Central senior receiver Reece Kolke said. “Coach Griffin always says adversity, adversity. It makes us who we are. Grit. We always say that. Whatever the challenge is, we’ve always got to push to the last ring on the bell.”

For the winning pass, Kolke (eight catches, 159 yards) seemed the logical target. He had an 8-yard TD catch in the third quarter and receptions of 48 and 46, the latter followed by Cernugel’s 1-yard TD run on the opening drive for a 7-0 first-quarter lead. Kolke did follow Lyne with a wide-open catch for the two-point conversion and a three-point lead.

“The play’s designed to go to someone else but I just happened to be open,” said Lyne, who has just five catches this season with two TDs.

“(Lyne) had maybe 10 to 15 snaps all night,” Griffin said. “To be ready when you’re number’s called, that’s what we’ve had to do.”

Perhaps it will be remembered as the Drizzy Drive, a nickname Lyne can’t quite explain.

“It just started to happen. All of my friends started calling me (Drizzy) and I made it my own,” Lyne said.

For the Huskies, the outcome followed the Glenbard West and Lyons Township games where they also started well but eventually lost.

“We’ve got some soul searching to do and hopefully our kids take this as a lesson and a challenge and bounce back,” OPRF coach John Hoerster said. “We’ve got to learn to finish a game.”

OPRF linebacker Eric Evans saw his most action at running back and rushed 25 times for 154 yards, 105 in the first half. Evans scored the Huskies’ first two TDs on 1-yard runs – the second following lineman Cole Roberson’s interception of a tipped pass near midfield and return to the 10. The Huskies’ third TD came after regaining possession at the 39 following an end-zone punt.

The momentum shifted as Hinsdale Central limited OPRF to a three-and-out offensive possession for the third quarter. The Red Devils played their first game without injured captain, linebacker and leading tackler Joe Boggs. Sean O’Hea and Magnus Kumskis made their first starts. OPRF was without injured receiver Ryan Martin, who has eight TD catches. “We’ve got to finish but that’s not just on us. Hinsdale did a great job,” Hoerster said.