Lockport drops South Elgin to 0-2
LOCKPORT — Nate Gomez rallied the South Elgin football team with a pair of touchdowns in the final four minutes as the Storm came roaring back to take a late lead.
But in the end, it wasn't enough as Ben Davis passed and kicked Lockport Township to a 17-15 victory in a nonconference clash on Friday night in Lockport.
After Gomez scored on an 8-yard TD run with less than a minute to play, Davis hit all 3 of his passes for 47 yards to help move the Porters to the South Elgin 13 yard line. From there the senior kicked a 31-yard field goal with 5.1 seconds left to win the game.
Despite the heartbreaking loss, Storm coach Patrik Pistorio kept a positive outlook.
“We have a great group and they gave it their all tonight,” Pistorio said. “It was exciting.”
It certainly was at the end, but for the better part of three quarters, it wasn't. The Storm (0-2) trailed 14-3 and couldn't find the end zone. Enter Gomez, who came in the game with 7:31 remaining in relief of fellow junior Nathan Smith.
Gomez (6-of-9, 111 yards) fired a 42-yard pass to Darrell Walker on 4th-and-6 with 4:02 to play in the game. His 8-yard TD pass to Kyle Pollert on the next play narrowed the gap to 14-9 with 3:51 remaining.
The Porters (2-0) were forced to punt on the next possession, but Davis was ruled to have touched the ground with his knee on a low snap, giving the ball to South Elgin at the Lockport 41. Once again Gomez worked magic by finding Desmond Lockett with a 31-yard pass on 3rd-and-24 to the Porter 24. A penalty and two plays later it was second and goal from the 8. Gomez scored from there on a bootleg run to the left and although the 2-point conversion was missed, the Storm led 15-14 with 57.5 seconds left.
“Nate has been in the mix and the two of them have battled,” Pistorio said of putting Gomez in at quarterback. We just went with our gut there, had a little change-up and it worked.”
But Davis (22-for-37, 221 yards), who was intercepted four times, came through at the end.
After coming up short on two field goal attempts to start, Nicolas Farfan nailed a 19-yarder with 5:18 left in the first half to give South Elgin a 3-0 lead. But it took Lockport less than 3 minutes to drive down and score on a 27-yard pass from Davis to Patrick Cooper.
Tavares Moore added a 1-yard TD plunge in the final minute of the third quarter to put Lockport up 14-3.
Although the Storm dropped its first two games of this season, after going 9-2 a year ago, they still have their eyes set on trying to win another conference title.
“I felt we played really well on defense,” Pistorio said. “We were flying around and outhit them out there. “We're just looking to take some of the energy (of the comeback) into conference play.”