Lincoln-Way East overwhelms Lockport; James Kwiecinski rumbles for 287 yards, 4 TDs

FRANKFORT – Lincoln-Way East coach Rob Zvonar briefly considered having his team practice inside during inclement weather that came Tuesday.

He ultimately decided against it figuring, “You never know what Friday might bring.”

What Friday did bring was persistent rain for most of the contest with visiting Lockport, but the Griffins (7-0, 4-0 SouthWest Suburban Blue) didn’t skip a beat in collecting a 37-10 win.

“We didn’t really change anything,” Zvonar said. “We have a lot of respect for them (Lockport) and we knew we had to come out tonight ready for anything.”

The Griffins showed immediately that they meant business, quickly moving down the field with a couple of big runs from James Kwiecinski. He ultimately got the Griffins deep in the red zone and would then get a short touchdown run from Peter Olaleye to take a 6-0 lead.

After Lockport’s first drive didn’t net anything positive, the Griffins tried to go right back to work, but the Porters held on a short fourth-down conversion and started with great field position. But Lockport (5-3, 1-3) was unable to do much with the football and was forced to settle for a field goal to slice its deficit to 6-3.

Kwiecinski and the Griffins promptly went back to work. Kwiecinski, who would eventually score from the 2-yard line, finished the first quarter with nearly 100 rushing yards.

The rain was likely limiting for both teams, but it seemed to really be hampering Lockport’s ability to move the ball through the air, a huge part of the Porters’ recent success stories over Lincoln-Way West and Bolingbrook.

Lockport struggled to get the ball to their major offensive component Hyatt Timosciek, who ended the game with just two receptions. Part of the problem was the weather, the other problem was Griffins defensive back J.T. Poynton, who stuck to Timosciek like glue for most of the game.

“Obviously, some of it was the weather,” Zvonar said. “But I thought we did a really nice job with them when they did decide to throw.”

Lockport’s main avenue for moving the football early on was picking up a few pass interference calls. The Porters finished the game with less than 100 yards of total offense.

Meanwhile, Kwiecinski was simply finding holes and blasting through them, collecting gobs of yardage and adding his second, third and fourth touchdown runs in the process. He would finish with 287 rushing yards.

“I have nothing but respect for our opponents. I really feel like that we practice against the best defense in the state day in and day out and that prepares us for anything,” Kwiecinski said. “I can’t do any of the things I do without the offensive line, they always do a great job and tonight wasn’t any different.”

After a mammoth kickoff return, Lockport finally got a touchdown late. Michael Doneske scored from 10 yards out off a Brady Pfeifer pass early in the fourth quarter.

The Griffins, who finished their SWSC Blue schedule undefeated to take the title outright after sharing it with Lockport last season, close out the regular season next week against Bradley-Bourbonnais.

“We set a couple of goals for ourselves at the beginning of the season. One, we try to win all of our nonconference games and we did that. And next we try to win the conference title outright,” Zvonar said. “We were able to do that tonight and that means something to us. We wanted to get it back in our sole possession.”