By Bob Leach
For the Bugle
Holding onto a 9-0 lead with 5 minutes, 7 seconds left to play, No. 28 seed Joliet West was primed to upset No. 5 Oswego on the road in the opening round of the 8A playoffs.
After three and a half quarters played, the Tiger defense played like it belonged among the best in the state as drive after drive for the Panthers fell short but Oswego had the ball at the West 35-yard line with a strong wind at its back late in the fourth.
It took only three plays for Panther quarterback Levi Olson to find his receiver Elliot Pipkin cutting through the middle of the end zone for an 8-yard score with 4:32 left to play and cutting the West lead 9-7.
West got the ball back but Tigers running back Kendrick Roach fumbled the ball at the 40-yard line with 3:12 to play setting the Panthers up in good field position at the 50-yard line.
The Tiger defense again rose to the challenge and Marcus Blackmon came up with West’s third interception of an Olson pass at the Tiger 47-yard line seemingly setting Joliet up for a final clock eating drive, but as luck would have it, that series didn’t go as planned.
West was forced to punt the ball into a stiff wind and only got a 10-yard net setting the Panthers up at the 50-Yard line with 2:01 left to play.
Olson calmly led his team with a 7-play drive to the Tiger 3-yard line and spiked the ball stopping the clock with 28 seconds left. Moments later, Oswego kicker Mitch Blocker split the uprights with a 19-yard field goal giving Oswego a 10-9 come-from-behind victory over the Tigers in the opening round of the Class 8A state football playoffs.
The West defense was simply sensational despite the loss.
Adonnis Cousin Lee covered a blocked punt in the end zone early in the fourt that put the Tigers up 9-0 and cornerback Justin Painter shut down Pipkin all night twice picking Olson and stopping Panther drives.
Impressive as they were, nobody stood out more than Tiger linebacker Julius Garrett who recovered a fumble and cause another on the night as he terrorized the Oswego running attack.
“I was playing my heart out”, said Garret after the loss. “I didn’t want my season to end but it was a good season. The experience I gained from the season will stay with me forever, I am just sad to see it’s over.”
West coach Jason Aubry was obviously disappointed at the loss but remained incredibly poised at the end and thanked his team for the hard work they put in to get the Tiger program back to the playoffs.
“I told them I couldn’t be more proud of a Joliet West football team after their performance tonight.” Aubry said. “I think we outplayed them. They put a couple good drives in at the end but that is what good teams do.”
