Lincoln-Way East takes control late, stops Carmel
It’s not like Lincoln-Way East had it in its game plan to spot Carmel Catholic a 7-0 lead. That’s just how it ended up working out.
A turnover-filled, defensive standoff in the first half gave way to a wild third quarter. For Carmel, it was a bit too wild.
Sophomore Darius Crump raced 72-yards for a touchdown to give the host Corsairs an early 7-0 lead. The quick strike and subsequent spark for Carmel lasted all of 80 seconds.
“I just saw lots of daylight,” Crump said. “I know when I get a hole like that, no one is going to catch me.”
The wake-up call came just at the right time for the Griffins as East rattled off 17 unanswered points to hold off Carmel 17-7 in a nonconference game that was moved to Saturday because of a power outage at Carmel on Friday night.
“We had that nice run and (Lincoln-Way East) comes back and we have a few breakdowns,” said Carmel coach Andy Bitto. “I thought our kids played hard. Defensively I thought we played three good quarters of really good football. But you have to play four quarters against a team like that.”
After the long run by Crump, the Griffins traveled 80 yards in 80 seconds with the majority coming on the back of junior tailback Alex Kraft. He rushed for 140 of his game-high 155 yards in the second half.
“At halftime we made some adjustments and our offensive line played great,” Kraft said. “After Carmel scored, it really made us realize we had to step it up.”
Kraft rushed for 62 yards on the drive that was capped by a short touchdown pass from Jordan Wirtz to Colin O’Connell, knotting the game at 7-7.
Five minutes later, East (1-0) ran behind Kraft to take the lead for good. Three big runs from Kraft led to a 14-yard touchdown pass from Wirtz to Paul Gossage, and the Griffins had taken control.
“I was proud of the offense with that 17-point third quarter,” East coach Rob Zvonar said. “We had some adversity that is common in a first game like that, and I thought we bounced back well from that.”
Carmel (0-1) had trouble getting its triple option attack moving. The Griffins had a lot to do with that as Carmel managed just 5 yards in the first half and earned its first first down of the night on the touchdown run by Crump.
The Corsairs finished with only 129 yards in total offense and 5 first downs.
“We were minus a couple of guys on offense and we wanted to get this thing to a 10-7 type of game,” Bitto said. “We almost did that tonight.”
The Griffins closed out the scoring by converting a 22-yard field goal late in the third quarter.