It’s a luxurious most groups don’t get pleasure from — having a Big Ten recruit and with the ability to choose and select when to make use of him.
So it’s with Lincoln-Way East, which stored Michigan-bound receiver AJ Henning, the state’s top-ranked senior, principally in reserve till late within the third quarter of Saturday’s Class 8A semifinal at Marist.
Then Henning scored two touchdowns in three possessions and the Griffins had been on their approach again to the state finals in DeKalb with a 24-7 win.
Junior operating again Jamal Johnson carried the load a lot of the day for Lincoln-Way East (13-0), grinding out 175 yards on 28 carries and scoring on a 14-yard run within the first quarter.
“Jamal was just making so much happen early on, it was very hard for the defense to stop him,” Henning mentioned. “So coach (Rob Zvonar) was ready to run the offense through him.”
But after defensive again Matt Kordas recovered a fumble for his second takeaway of the sport, the Griffins struck rapidly with Henning’s 15-yard catch organising his personal three-yard TD run.
That pushed the Griffins’ result in 17-7, and Zvonar was prepared to show to his four-star recruit for the final touch.
“Going into the fourth quarter, I grabbed 3 (Henning) and said, ‘I need one from you,’” Zvonar mentioned.
It got here with 6:27 left within the recreation when Henning turned quarterback Kyle Quinn’s shovel cross right into a 66-yard TD and a 24-7 lead.
“We run that play a lot,” Henning mentioned. “It was really set up by the blocking on the perimeter. Max Tomczak made a great block on the outside for me to get a crease.”
Henning completed with three catches for 85 yards and 104 yards on 10 whole touches.
“Jamal stepped up when (running back) Devon Williams went down and … that’s tremendous to have the depth at that spot,” Zvonar mentioned. “We can use AJ in other ways.”
Grid View
On the opposite aspect of the ball, Lincoln-Way East was plus-three in turnovers for the primary time this season. Marist (8-5) was down 10-7 and driving for a possible go-ahead TD within the second quarter when Kordas picked off a Hayden Mikesell cross in the long run zone.
Josh Vargas, taking part in with a torn labrum, added one other interception within the fourth quarter to successfully seal the win.
“We knew we were the best defense in the state coming into this,” Kordas mentioned. “We worked our butt off all week and we knew we were going to come out here and do our thing.”
Mikesell handed for 178 yards — principally to Brendan Barry (72 yards) and Carnell Tate (62 yards) — and ran for 45 extra. But the RedHawks didn’t rating after Mikesell’s 27-yard TD cross to Barry on fourth-and-nine with 8:51 left within the second quarter.
Now it’s again to DeKalb for the Griffins and Henning, who ran for 154 yards and two TDs when Lincoln-Way East beat Loyola within the 2017 8A remaining.
“Last time we were there, I can still picture it perfectly in my mind,” Henning mentioned. “We did special things on that field two years ago and we’re looking to do it again next week.”