Liam Morrissey took himself to a milestone in the first half. In the second half, he took his team to a conference title.
Morrissey was far from ready to gloat about himself, though, after Lincoln-Way East’s 23-9 SouthWest Suburban Blue victory Friday night over visiting Bolingbrook.
“It was a direct reflection of how good our line is this year,” Morrissey said. “They’re doing some amazing things. They’re all great.”
Morrissey rushed 38 times for 173 yards and two touchdowns, along the way passing the 1,000-yard mark rushing for the season as the Griffins (7-1, 6-0) clinched at least a tie for the conference title.
East can claim it outright with a win next week against Joliet Central.
“This didn’t come easy at all,” Griffins quarterback Mike Weller said. “We had some rough patches (Friday), but our defense played an unbelievable game and we came out conference champs. It’s a great feeling.”
Weller (18 of 29, 138 yards) also came up big, throwing a 10-yard TD pass to Ken Alexa with 4:06 left to play to give the Griffins some breathing room in what had been a 10-9 game.
It was Morrissey, though, who came up with the game-breaker, a 49-yard run with 3:48 left in the third period that allowed East to go in front for good, 10-7. It came after Bolingbook (5-3, 4-2) produced its only successful drive of the night, a 67-yarder that was capped via a 6-yard run by Isaac Lane.
It also followed a first half of frustration in which the Griffins couldn’t find the end zone, save for a 29-yard field goal by Nick Jenig.
“We changed some things up at the half, started seeing different holes open up,” Morrissey said. “We just took advantgage of it.”
Bolingbrook, which produced just five first downs in the first half, had better offensive chances in the second half snuffed out by East’s defense.
The Raiders had closed to within 10-9 after East took an intentional safety. Then, on a second-down play at midfield, Lane had the ball punched out on a run and Pat Carr pounced on it for the Griffins. Later, down 16-9 after the Alexa score, the Raiders were at the East 48 when an Adam Klein pass was picked off by Luke Epich.
Bolingbrook’s last chance wasn’t a good one, starting at its own 7 with 2:03 remaining after a 55-yard punt by Alexa. After three straight incomplete passes, Klein was sacked at his own 3. Morrissey drove in the final nail for East on the next play with a three-yard TD blast.
