Glenbard West has an idea now: It's headed to state

Mark Hiben claimed he had "no idea" if he caught Tyler Warden's spiral inbounds.

Hiben couldn't verify if there were multiple Lake Zurich defenders who had him seemingly covered in the left corner of the end zone.

And how did the hero - one of them, anyway - of Glenbard West's thrilling, 21-17 win over Lake Zurich in Saturday's Class 7A football state semifinal emerge from a pile of hilariously happy Hilltoppers unscathed?

The junior wide receiver, of course, had no clue.

"We're going to state," said a smiling Hiben, positive of that. "That's all that matters."

Glenbard West knows this: If not for Hiben's 11-yard touchdown reception from Warden with six seconds left, the Hilltoppers' perfect season would have ended on a sunny fall afternoon in front of an estimated 5,500 fans at Lake Zurich.

Instead, Glenbard West (13-0) will play Wheaton Warrenville South (12-1), a 34-15 winner over East St. Louis Senior, in Saturday's 4 p.m. state championship game at the University of Illinois' Memorial Stadium in Champaign. It will be the Hilltoppers' first trip downstate since they won the Class 5A title in 1983 with a 13-0 record.

"I'm so happy, I can't even describe it," said Warden, the 6-foot-6 senior QB who had tears streaming down his face. "I've never felt like this before in my life."

The joy was understandable and so was the heartache felt by Lake Zurich, the 2007 state champ that was seeking its third finals appearance in four years.

After Max Methling's 29-yard field goal with 4:30 left snapped a 17-17 tie, the 11th-seeded Bears (9-4) were on the verge of stunning the top seed.

"It hurts," said Lake Zurich sophomore linebacker Jack Lynn, who nearly sacked the elusive Warden on the play previous to the game-winning TD. "We were pretty confident (on the final drive), but they're a pretty good team."

Lake Zurich's stout defense had come up with a critical three-and-out on Glenbard West's previous series, forcing a punt from the Hilltoppers' 8. Jacob Brinlee's 21-yard punt return set Lake Zurich up at the Glenbard West 22. But it was the Hilltoppers' defense that then rose to the challenge, with Jack Marston running Brinlee (22 carries, 96 yards, 2 TDs) out of bounds for a 4-yard loss at the 11 on third-and-6.

"We knew if we held them to a field goal that our offense would go down the field and score," Hilltoppers senior cornerback Cody Olsen said. "We made that a big priority."

After recovering its own fumble on the ensuing kickoff after Methling's field goal, Glenbard West got the ball with 4:23 on the clock.

"We never gave up," Warden said. "We were saying, 'We can come back. No one hang their head. O-line's got to block like they never have.' And they did."

With the knowledge that "it's the last drive we could ever have together," Warden said, the Hilltoppers started moving the ball. Three third-down conversions - including 13- and 12-yard completions from Warden to Nick Burrello (7 catches, 80 yards) - helped Glenbard West get to the Lake Zurich 11.

After two incompletions, it was time for the Warden-to-Hiben heroics.

Warden bootlegged left and eluded pressure from Mark Tabaka, whose early first-quarter fumble recovery led to Brinlee's 18-yard touchdown run. Hiben ran a comeback route and Warden found him. Lake Zurich cornerback Zach Till appeared to get a hand on the pass, which capped a 15-play drive.

"(The play) has been working all week in practice, so Coach (Chad Hetlet) just felt confident in it," said Hiben, who finished with 4 catches for 35 yards.

"Our kids were coming," Lake Zurich coach Bryan Stortz said of the final drive. "(Glenbard West) just made a couple more plays than us at the end."

Trailing 14-7 at halftime after having turned the ball over three times, Glenbard West pulled even when Adam Bruere (13 carries, 145 yards) broke free for a 76-yard touchdown run with 5:35 left in the third quarter.

"We've been up at halftime for every game we've played, so this was a different challenge for us," Warden said. "But we rose to the occasion."

Lake Zurich did for most of the day, holding a Hilltoppers offense that was averaging nearly 37 points per game to a season-low total.

"Our defense played phenomenal," Stortz said. "They did a great job for us all year long."