Hersey’s ‘special team’ is headed for the state semifinals

Hersey running back Jackson Travis felt like he let his team down.

“I fumbled and then they scored,” Travis said. “I knew I had to bounce back stronger, and I think I did that pretty well.”

More than well.

Travis rushed for 236 yards on 31 carries and scored two touchdowns as Hersey ground down Lincoln-Way West 33-14 Saturday in the Class 7A football playoffs in New Lenox.

Hersey (12-0) advanced to the state semifinals for the first time since 1987, when the Huskies won the state championship.

The Huskies will host Downers Grove North (11-1) on Saturday. Downers Grove North beat Richards 38-29 on Saturday to advance.

“It has been 39 years since we have been in the semifinals,” Hersey coach Tom Nelson said. “We have a special team and a special group of kids. They are playing good when it really matters.”

For the second game in a row, Hersey’s offense got off to a slow start. That was compounded when Travis fumbled at his own 25 and the Warriors (8-5) capitalized for a 7-0 lead.

Travis showed the right way to respond on his team’s next possession. His 29-yard run ignited the offense, which scored two plays after that on a 25-yard pass from Jake Nawrot to Jaxon Saint Paul to tie the game at 7-7.

With Nawrot completing just that one pass in his first eight attempts due to five dropped passes, the offense leaned even harder on the running game.

Operating behind Ryan Haefke, Drew Sather, Ryne Sather, Johnny LaMonica and Spiro Zarafonitis, Travis began to pound at the Lincoln-Way West defense.

“We’re a balanced offense,” Nelson said. “We have great players all over, like our running back and our offensive line. We can run it, we can throw it and we are going to do both the best that we can.”

With the running game keeping Lincoln-Way West on its heels, the Hersey passing game began to find its footing.

Nawrot completed 10 passes in a row, including a 14-yard touchdown pass to Josh Riggs with 31 seconds left in the half to make it 14-7 at the break.

Hersey then got the two-for-one when they scored on the first possession of the third quarter. Nawrot’s short passing took the Huskies down the field and Travis then took it over from the three-yard line to increase the lead to 20-7.

Lincoln-Way West answered with a 49-yard touchdown pass to make it 20-14. But six plays later, Travis busted off a 45-yard touchdown run to give the Huskies some breathing room again at 27-14.

Lincoln-Way West tried to answer again. But Dom Wentink slid in front of a Warriors receiver inside the Hersey 20 for an interception.

“We were in cover three there” said Wentink, who also caught five passes for 66 yards. “They were trying to throw to their best receiver and I just read the play well. Our defense has been overshadowed by our offense all season. We just step it up and play really physical.”

Nawrot then closed out the game with his third touchdown pass of the day, a two-yarder to Saint Paul.

“We started out ugly as some adversity hit,” said Nawrot, who finished 16-of-25 passing for 203 yards.

“Jackson (Travis) and our offensive line have been extraordinary. And our defense came up huge again. And I think we just got to continue to carry that out each week.”