Booker leads Sandburg in comeback win

With his team trailing in the fourth quarter and on the verge of being upset, Lemonte Booker decided to make it happen.

Booker scored all three of his touchdowns in the fourth quarter as Sandburg rallied for a 34-14 victory over Lockport in a SouthWest Suburban Blue matchup on Friday night in Orland Park.

The win improved Sandburg, which is bound for the playoffs for a fifth consectutive season, to 7-1 and 5-1 in the SWSC Blue. Lockport, which defeated Sandburg in overtime last year, is missing the playoffs for the first time since 2008 and dropped to 1-7, 1-5. It’s the Porters most losses in a season since 1994.

“We underestimated them,” Booker said of the Porters. “We looked at their record and thought we’d win. At the end we pulled together and won the game, but we can’t be doing that with the tough games coming up in the playoffs.”

Sandburg took its first lead of the second half at 13-7 when Booker scored from nine yards out with 11:20 to play. But Branden Bays returned the ensuing kickoff 89 yards to help set up Tyler Johnson’s 10-yard touchdown run and Lockport led 14-13 with 10:21 remaining.

But three plays and just over a minute later, Booker was in the end zone again with a 46-yard burst and the Eagles led for good at 20-14. Brian Langowski scored from four yards out and Booker added a 33-yard TD run to cap off the scoring. The senior running back finished with 20 carries for 178 yards. In the fourth quarter he had six carries for 111 yards and the three TD’s.

“We just went back to our bread and butter and started rolling,” Booker said. “At the start, I was waiting for the holes to happen, but then I said ‘make it happen.’ The offensive line did great.”

Jonathan Milazzo had first quarter field goals of 20 and 32 yards to give Sandburg a 6-0 lead. The Porters scored when sophomore quarterback Jeremy Quade, who was making his first ever start for the injured Ryan Dalton, scored on nine-yard run with 4:25 left in the second quarter.

Brendan Conlon had two second half interceptions and Dylan Swan added one as the Eagles defense forced four turnovers in the game.