Things weren’t looking good for the Lockport football team when it started the season 1-3.

Now the Porters are all but assured of making the playoffs.

Brendan Mecher threw two touchdowns and ran for another, fellow senior Adam Kozak scored twice, and Lockport won its fourth straight with a 34-21 victory over Metea Valley in a Southwest Valley Blue game on Friday evening at Lockport.

The Porters (5-3, 4-2) missed the playoffs last year, but should qualify no matter what this season.

“It was a great win and it gets us a playoff bid after not making it last year,” Mecher said. “It wasn’t the prettiest game, but we’ll learn from our mistakes and move on.”

Thanks to a 29-yard punt return by Kozak, Lockport started its first drive at the Mustang 28. Eight plays later, Chris Miller scored on a 2-yard touchdown run to make it 7-0. The senior finished with 20 carries for 84 yards.

But Metea Valley (2-6, 0-6) answered when Charlie Larson found Zoelen Terry with a screen pass, and the senior speedster turned it into a 53-yard touchdown to tie the score at 7-7 with 4:00 left in the opening quarter.

“Never, there’s no quit,” Terry said. “They scored, and we had to do our thing to get a touchdown too.”

It was one of a career-high three touchdown passes for Larson, a junior, who was 18-of-29 passing for 207 yards.

“It’s been a whole different change, a whole new team,” Larson said of the Mustangs doubling their win total from last season. “All you can do is ask for a fight, and that’s what we did.”

Yes, they did. But Kozak didn’t listen to the assistant coaches on the sideline, and that proved to be a good thing.

After a four-and-out, Metea Valley punted, and Kozak was just across midfield. With many coaches yelling “poison” as the ball bounced around, Kozak instead ignored them and returned the punt 53 yards for a touchdown. That put the Porters ahead for good at 14-7 with 30 seconds left in the first quarter.

“I did hear them,” Kozak smiled at the play. “But it took a perfect bounce to me. All the coaches had said during the week, ‘Let’s go get one.’ They had confidence in me, and I had confidence in them. I just had great blocks and a great lane. God’s great.

“We’re going to come into the playoffs rolling. The coaches trusted us to do a great job.”

Lockport coach George Czart did not yell ‘poison’ at Kozak.

“It took a hop and I thought he should 100% get it,” Czart said of the punt. “I want him to scoop it and gobble those up. When the ball is in his hands, he’s a dangerous weapon.”

Mecher finished with 20 carries for 90 yards and completed 8-of-15 passes for 106 yards. He completed a 38-yard pass to junior wide receiver Khairi Sias down to the one. Mecher then plowed in from the one on the next play for a 21-7 lead.

After an exchange of punts, Larson led the Mustangs downfield and fired a 19-yard touchdown pass to junior Marcus Stewart with 1:50 left in the first half.

The Porters missed a 32-yard field goal in the final seconds, and the score remained 21-14 at halftime.

It never got closer. Mecher capped a 13-play, 59-yard drive with a 4-yard pass to Kozak (3 receptions for 26 yards) with 1:11 left in the third quarter. Lockport converted two fourth-down plays in the drive and was 5-for-5 on fourth-down conversions in the game.

Sias, who had three receptions for 61 yards and had a touchdown called back, caught a 14-yard pass with 8:23 to play to make it 34-14. Larson had one more touchdown pass as he found Stewart (4 receptions for 60 yards) on a final scoring play with 4:46 to play.

Seniors Andre Labuda and Armando (AJ) Garcia Jr. had interceptions for the Porters. Junior defensive end Darrell McCullough had a pair of sacks and numerous big tackles for Lockport.

Entering Week 8 action, the Illinois High School Association website listed 32 probable Class 8A teams with at least a 4-3 record. Of those 32 teams, 13 had at least six wins and had clinched a spot. The Porters were No. 28 on the list with 35 points and are in great shape to clinch a place as far as playoff points go.

“I’ve been doing well after I switched positions from outside linebacker to defensive end,” McCullough said. “It’s just been the next-play mentality. We might have a bad play, but we do well on the next play.

“We were 1-3, but we just had to pick our heads up and keep going. Not let the losses get to us and finish strong.”