Lincoln-Way East’s offense did just about all it could do without scoring on its first two possessions in Friday night’s Class 8A playoff opener against Lincoln-Way Central.
Two Griffins defenders finally showed how it’s done.
It wasn’t just a quarterback sack that Brad Toepfer laid on Central quarterback Connor Campbell, it was a physical explosion.
The loose ball, remarkably still in one piece, was picked up by teammate Dan Cooper and run back 25 yards for East’s first touchdown.
If there was a game-changing play in what would become a 42-7 Lincoln-Way East win over Lincoln-Way Central, that was it.
“Yeah, oh, yeah, that really changed the momentum right around there,” Griffins quarterback Mike Weller said. “The defense did a great job. They helped us out.”
The defense helped out a lot, as it turned out.
Toepfer, Lee Lieser and Kyle Keuch all added interceptions as East (9-1) advanced to a second-round game against Reavis.
The Griffins offense did do its share. Liam Morrissey rushed 38 times for 191 yards and two touchdowns. Weller threw for 218 yards and two TDS, and scored once himself.
Lincoln-Way Central (5-5) got its lone score on a 20-yard run by Campbell.
Early frustration dogged the Griffins, who had two drives end at the Central 23 and 24. But Toepfer’s hit and Cooper’s score provided a big complexion change with 9:13 remaining the first half.
“That tops all of my hits,” Toepfer said. “That felt good. All I saw was (Campbell) getting ready to throw, and I tried to get a lick on him.”
Weller got into a groove at quarterback after that, driving the Griffins downfield for another score. The big plays were a 20-yard pass to Brandon Bauer, a 22-yard run by Morrissey and a 1-yard TD sneak by Weller.
Central cut the gap in half when Campbell broke five tackles en route to a TD run, but East came up big in the closing seconds of the half when Weller spotted Jeremey Nelson for a 5-yard score.
Toeper’s interception thwarted a Central scoring drive early in the third quarter. The Griffins didn’t convert on that one, but thefts by Lieser and Keuch led to two TDS by Morrissey, the first on a 55-yard gallop and the other on a 1-yard bash across the goal line.
“It felt good to finally cut it loose with the whole team,” Morrissey said. “We knew we were going to have some adversity with the weather (snow bursts and high winds). We just embraced it in the second half of the game.”
Central running back Sean Studer was bottled up for most the game, and had just 10 attempts for 34 yards. Campbell threw for 144 yards.
“Our defense was on the field way too much in the first half,” Central coach Hud Venerable said. “We just couldn’t get anything going offensively.”