Elliott Delivers Again as LT Snatches Game Away From York

“He did it again!” howled Jaime Jones as blue and gold chaos reigned on the York Community High School football field. “He did it again!”

“He’s a monster,” offered Matthew Harris. “That’s all I can say.”

“Just a tremendous, mentally tough performer,” said coach Kurt Weinberg.

It was all hail Jake Elliott on Friday night as the rookie Lyons Township (4-3, 3-2 conference) junior drilled a 47-yard field goal as time expired to give LT a 29-27 victory in a situation crazily reminiscent of last week, when his . This time, it was York Community High (5-2, 3-1 conference) who felt his foot's sting, the home Dukes’ fans’ turn to silently gape as a surefire win slipped away at the last second, courtesy of J.E.

Both times, Elliott’s powerful boot was the difference between a two-point Lions win and a one-point loss—and both times he connected from distances even NFL kickers consider fairly difficult, sending Lions players spilling out onto the field in a gleeful roar.

“Without the kid, we’re 2-5 right now,” said teammate Will Konstant. “It’s unbelievable what [he] does.”

Kicking scouts, take notice. The rookie's kick would have been good from another eight, 10 yards out.

While it was shorter than his previous game-winner, Elliott said this boot was still at least as tricky—it came from the left hash, and the right-footed kicker’s rare misses are pulls. But, “this one, I was a lot less nervous because I’ve had the experience now,” he said. “When I kicked it, I started celebrating. I knew it was in.”

“I thought it was a very good team win," said Weinberg, the Lions head coach. "Defensively, we got several takeaways, we mixed it up a little bit on pressure. Offensively, we moved the ball, I thought we ran the ball really well—and then special teams, obviously, thumping a 47-yarder through there.”

The Dukes had so far this season made a habit of pounding teams into the ground—crushing their last four opponents by a combined score of 161-21, with their only loss this season being by a single point in a non-conference slugfest against Rolling Meadows. They'd rolled over OPRF—the team LT narrowly edged—35-7.

But in this highly-touted conference match, York and LT both dug in and fought hard on each side of the ball, swapping leads again and again in what deserves to be remembered as a high school classic.

Down 23-21, pinned by a Luke Nelson punt at their own 10 with just 3:19 left in the game, York rallied behind QB Joe Lucca to convert two crucial long fourth-down passes to David Byerley and Austin Wagner on a 14-play, 2:37 drive capped off by a sensational Byerley touchdown rip-away catch from defender Victor Conforti. But Lucca misfired on the two-point conversion attempt, leaving the Dukes lead at a tenuous 27-26 with 42 seconds left on the clock.

Too tenuous; too much time.

After shooting themselves in the foot with a too-many-men-on-the-field penalty to move the Lions up to their own 33, the Dukes defense then allowed for two identical Connor-Onion-to-Jamari-Burks passes up the middle for 18 and 19 yards, leaving the door open for Elliott’s boot.

“We just have to kick the ball deep, and we didn’t,” said York head coach Bill Lech. “We put the 12 men on the field, and that gives them five more yards. We didn’t defend the two big plays over the middle—and as we saw last week, they have a pretty good kicker.

“We got outplayed tonight by a team that, tonight, was better than us. I’m proud of our kids…  They hung tough. They fought hard all night.”

The Lions struck first in the game with an Elliott field goal in the first quarter, only to see York’s Lucca respond by running the very next play from scrimmage 80 yards into the end zone.

LT answered right back with a seven-play drive, capped by a five-yard touchdown pass to Harris. Later in the second quarter, Onion connected with a short pass that Michael Thomas turned into a 52-yard gain to the 7-yard-line, and Harris would run it in the next play to give LT a 10-point lead.

Despite a Jake Rzeszutko punt-return TD being called back for holding, York would get seven of those points back right before halftime when Lucca hit Jordan Preuss down the right sideline for a 47-yard touchdown. LT had a chance for three before the half, but Onion was called for intentional grounding, putting the Lions out of range.

In the third quarter, LT’s first drive was stopped by a Rzeszutko pick, which the Dukes turned into a six-play, 50-yard scoring drive. As before, the Lions answered right back, taking nine plays to go 80 yards, capped by a Jamie Jones 3-yard TD run, but missed the extra point after a bobbled snap.

The score remained at 23-21 until late in the fourth quarter.

Onion was 13-for-28 for 167 yards with one TD and three interceptions; rival QB Lucca was 21-for-43 through the air for 228 yards and three TDs, but also three picks. Backup Dukes QB Andrew Iwaszkiewicz threw only one play: an Evan Booth interception.

Throughout the game, LT relied more on rushing (232 yards net, versus 167 passing) with Jaime Jones picking up 138 yards on 25 attempts and Harris running for 71 on 13 attempts.

DB Will Konstant was responsible for two of LT’s four takeaways, all interceptions.

“Our coaching staff does a great job scouting a team,” Konstant said. “We just made checks in the second  half to make those reads [and] give me chances to make plays on the ball.”

“We played our hearts out,” said Harris, who also took many snaps from a wildcat formation, but only threw once, incomplete, on a WR reverse. “We knew we had to get this win for the playoffs, and we just came up big. As a team, we did awesome."

Video highlights of this game will be available on Patch later in the weekend. The game can be seen in its entirety on Comcast CN100 at noon and 4 p.m. on Saturday.