Sweet finish favors St. Francis at Lakes
It's not to say that St. Francis senior quarterback Clint Bobowski was happy to see his team down 10 with 6:03 remaining in a Class 6A second round contest at Lakes, but the seemingly always positive Bobowski had a different spin on the situation.
"The way we looked at it was, the greater the deficit, the sweeter the comeback," he said.
The comeback for the Spartans was sweet - even sweeter for Bobowski.
With No. 6 St. Francis trailing third-seeded Lakes 36-26, Bobowski, who had twice come out of the game after partially dislocating his left shoulder, engineered a pair of scoring drives to rally the visiting Spartans to a 39-36 victory Saturday.
St. Francis (10-1), which last made the quarterfinals in 2008, when the Spartans won the Class 5A title, will host Hinsdale South (9-2) next Saturday. Lakes closed out its season at 9-2.
"Clint is that type of kid," St. Francis coach Mike Fitzgerald said. "He has the heart of a lion, and when we put the ball in his hands, I feel good about the play."
In this wildly bizarre contest, Lakes built a 36-26 lead in the fourth quarter off two long scoring plays. The first came on the final play of the third quarter when do-it-all senior Jake Balliu returned a punt 33 yards for a score to give Lakes the lead back at 29-26.
Three minutes later, Izayah James, who rushed for 150 yards on 22 carries, tallied his second scoring run of the night from 33 yards out.
"We just knew that we couldn't be kept down," Bobowski said.
On the ensuing kickoff, an onside attempt by the Eagles failed, giving the Spartans the ball at midfield. Three plays later, Bobowski hooked up with Michael Shaw for a 13-yard scoring play, and the Spartans were right back in it.
St. Francis got the ball back with 3:53 on the clock, and Bobowski and the offense went back to work. On third-and-goal from the Lakes 4, Bobowski found Shaw again on a swing pass with 1:28 left for the go-ahead score.
Bobowski threw for 232 yards 4 touchdown passes.
"Clint is a captain for us - an unbelievable leader - and leads by example for us," Fitzgerald said. "For him to come back after having his shoulder pop out twice just shows the character of that young man."
Lakes had one final possession, but a long pass by quarterback Jordan Mercure was intercepted by Shaw at midfield.
Mercure tossed a pair of touchdown strikes to Balliu, who accounted for 170 yards receiving.
"Jake is one of the most dynamic football players I have ever coached," Lakes coach Luke Mertens said. "He can do so many things, and he is an even better person."
Balliu's first touchdown catch and run of 61 yards put Lakes up 14-0 in the first quarter. His second touchdown catch went for 26 yards to give Lakes a 21-20 lead to open the second half.