Batavia mounts furious second-half rally to top Lincoln-Way West 25-21

NEW LENOX – Batavia coach Dennis Piron claimed there was no electric halftime speech or mountains of wisdom passed along to his team at halftime of the Class 7A second-round game against Lincoln-Way West on Nov. 9.

Maybe that’s true.

But whatever message was passed to the Bulldogs certainly got through loud and clear. Batavia put together a furious second-half effort to escape with a 25-21 win over Lincoln-Way West and advance to the state quarterfinals.

Batavia (10-1) hosts Downers Grove North (10-1) at 1 p.m. Saturday in the quarterfinals. Downers Grove North earned a 13-10 victory over Fenwick with a late field goal.

Lincoln-Way West closed its season with a 7-4 record.

“I think we just woke up a little bit,” Piron said of the halftime break. “We had a chance to score right before halftime and even though we didn’t, it was kind of like, ‘Come on!’ I was like, ‘Guys, we should probably have 21 points right now. ... Let’s just execute and finish.’ ”

Batavia hadn’t done much in the first half while Lincoln-Way West flourished. The Bulldogs turned the ball over on downs on their first possession and the Warriors promptly zipped down the field scoring on a 44-yard touchdown pass from Chase Hetfleisch to Chase Markowitz.

Markowitz thwarted a Batavia red zone drive with an interception, and while the Warriors didn’t cash it in for points, they later added another Hetfleisch-to-Markowitz touchdown pass from 11 yards out.

A few minutes later, Hetfleisch hit DeAndre Coates for a 10-yard score to put Lincoln-Way West up 21-0.

Batavia’s offense continued to sputter and looked like it might be shut out in the first half when a drive stalled at the Lincoln-Way West 24-yard line. But Batavia pulled off a fake punt and it worked like a charm. Isaiah Brown tossed the ball out of the snap to Keegan Harp, who went the distance for a 76-yard score to close the gap to 21-7.

Batavia quickly forced a punt and loosened the reins on sophomore quarterback Michael Vander, who promptly completed a 56-yard pass to Brown and a 20-yard dart to Greyson Kelly inside the Lincoln-Way West 5-yard line, but time expired on the half before the Bulldogs could get off another snap.

It wasn’t a scoring drive, but it gave Batavia faith it could move the football.

After the break, that’s exactly what the Bulldogs did.

Vander executed a swift drive that ended in a 14-yard touchdown pass to Brown (eight receptions, 179 yards). The extra-point attempt was blocked, but Batavia was in striking distance trailing 21-13.

Batavia mounted another serious threat as the third quarter wound down, moving the ball deep into Lincoln-Way West territory. But with the ball resting at the 2-yard line on the final play of the quarter, Nathan Whitwell had it knocked loose while scrapping for extra yardage and it appeared to be a pivotal game-changing moment.

But all the miscue seemed to do was fire up Batavia even more. Lincoln-Way West couldn’t do much with its next possession and punted the ball back to Batavia, which went on a long drive that included two big connections between Vander and Brown before Batavia punched in a score with 3:41 to play. Vander floated a 6-yard pass to Lucas Stevenson for the touchdown.

Batavia couldn’t get the conversion and trailed 21-19.

The Bulldogs quickly forced a three-and-out and Vander, who wasn’t moved up to varsity until Week 7, immediately went back to work.

He hit Brown for a five-yard gain and 15 more yards were tacked on after a Lincoln-Way West penalty. Setting up shop at the Lincoln-Way West 48-yard line, Vander let one rip to Brett Berggren.

Berggren tumbled into the end zone for what turned out to be the decisive score.

“We were all hungry to get this win,” Vander said. “Nobody was down, nobody was hanging their heads, everybody was picking each other up, being great teammates. And then we just came out here and dropped 25 unanswered.”

Lincoln-Way West still had a little more than two minutes to try to respond, but the offensive faucet that was wide open in the first half was closed off for most of the final two quarters. The Warriors threw four incompletions and Whitwell, who started slowly but finished with 98 yards rushing, secured a first down for the Bulldogs and allowed them to cinch the stunning victory.

The loss was extremely tough to swallow for Lincoln-Way West.

“This is a second-round football game that could have very easily been a semifinal game or a final. Two of the best teams in Class 7A. I truly believe that, and I know Batavia knows that,” Lincoln-Way West coach Luke Lokanc said. “I just wish these guys could have played one more game together in the next week but we got a semifinal, final-type game in the second round.”