Metea Valley battles at Lockport but drops sixth straight

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 for a pair of 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 percent 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 a trio of 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."