Fenwick senior defensive lineman Zikomo Mbewe is among members of the school’s bagpipes club, which escorts the football team to the field at Triton College before every home game, a tradition that started this year.

“I’m of Scottish heritage, and my bagpipes instructor said I should start doing it for football games, so I thought, why not. It’s been cool,” Mbewe said.

Mbewe also is a solid football player, as he had a good game in helping the Friars slow down a potent Burlington Central offense in a 49-21 Class 6A quarterfinal victory Saturday afternoon.

“We were all each individually able to our jobs,” said Mbewe, who finished 4.5 tackles, including a sack. “We each had an assignment, and we all executed. All eleven guys did their job, and we did it to our fullest.”

Fenwick (9-3) took the opening kickoff and got off to a good start, going 83 yards on four plays. Jamen Williams (17-of-20 passing for 214 yards, two TDs) found Will Tomczak (75 yards on four receptions) for a 40-yard score and a 7-0 lead 97 seconds into the contest.

Williams thought it was important to begin the game strongly.

“We know (Central) is a good team that runs a lot and takes time off the clock,” he said.

After stopping Central (10-2) with a three-and-out defensively, the Friars put together another impressive scoring drive - 64 yards on nine plays, capping it with Jake Thies taking a backward lateral from Williams and going into the end zone from 6 yards. The snap on the point-after was botched to leave the score 13-0 Fenwick.

“We saw when they’re operating their offense they can really chip away and extend drives,” Fenwick coach Matt Battaglia said. “It was big to build a cushion and to be able to force them to get a little bit out of their base offense.”

Central got rolling on its next drive, marching 80 yards on 14 plays and chewing up nearly eight minutes. Quarterback Landon Arnold (12-of-28 passing for 175 yards; 52 yards on 14 rushes) ended it with a 5-yard touchdown run, bringing the Rockets to within a score with 8:20 left in the half.

Thies – who had a tremendous game with 249 yards and four touchdowns on 19 rushes – had a brilliant 42-yard run on Fenwick’s final first-half drive, zigzagging across the field a couple of times before being brought down deep in Central territory. He scored from 7 yards out with 17 seconds left to make the score 20-7 at halftime.

“Jake’s a cheat code at this point,” Williams said. “He’s been doing it every day, every week. That’s what type of kid he is, and I’m glad he’s on my team.”

On the Friars’ first second-half play from scrimmage, Thies went 68 yards to the house.

Arnold gave Central hopes on the next possession, as his 44-yard completion to Gavin Bergemann (92 yards on five receptions) set up Henry Deering’s 1-yard score at the 7:18 mark of the third quarter. But Fenwick scored on its next three possessions to salt the game away - a 16-yard Williams touchdown pass to Raphiel Stewart (four receptions, 53 yards); a 2-yard keeper by Williams; and a 52-yard touchdown run by Thies.

The Friars rolled up 514 yards of total offense, 300 rushing.

“It’s a team effort. A lot of guys had great games,” Battaglia said, “but there’s still a lot to clean up on. I don’t think we had as good of a practice week as we did two weeks ago, and that’s going to be the biggest thing for us - enjoy this for 24 hours, but we’ve got to refocus and get better each day.”

Central got its final touchdown with 5:20 left as receiver Samuel Ames connected with Arnold on a 3-yard flea-flicker. The Rockets struggled to establish the running game against Fenwick, gaining just 77 yards on the ground.

“We didn’t execute in some plays here and there,” Central coach Brian Iossi said. “My hat’s off to Fenwick. I thought they played a great game, but we’ve got to execute on some bigger plays.”

Central won 10 games for the fourth time in program history, and Iossi thanked his 21 seniors for their leadership.

“They battled all the way to the end,” Iossi said. “They took our program to a new standard, and that’s what we asked them to do when they were freshmen when I took over. These guys brought into that, and I told them they have nothing to hang their heads about. They did so much for our program.”

Fenwick advances to the state semifinals for the fifth time. The Friars will visit Nazareth Academy, the top seed in the 6A North Bracket. The Roadrunners staged a dramatic late rally to stun Lake Zurich 24-21 in their quarterfinal.