Looking around, Lincoln-Way Central’s Lucas Andresen grasped the severity of the situation.
And in the clutch, he made some big grabs.
The junior receiver came up with six catches Saturday night, and boy, did he make them count. All six of those catches went for first downs. One came on fourth down. One went for a touchdown.
“Our team was struggling,” Andresen said. “I needed to find ways to get to the open spot. My quarterback (Drew Woodburn) put me in a good spot. Just catch the ball and get plays going.”
Andresen finished with 151 yards, but the host Knights fell just short of the reaching the state championship game as Batavia rallied for a 25-21 win in a Class 7A semifinal in New Lenox.
Isaiah Brown caught a 15-yard TD pass with 31 seconds remaining to lift the Bulldogs (12-1) to a 4 p.m. Saturday game against two-time defending state champion Mount Carmel (10-3).
All six of Andresen’s catches went for 10 yards or more for Lincoln-Way Central (9-4), and all came at key moments in the game. Woodburn completed 10 of 17 passes for 180 yards and a TD.
Woodburn also ran for 1-yard TD. Tyler Tulk added a 2-yard TD run. But Andresen was the best.
“He’s fantastic,” Lincoln-Way Central coach David Woodburn said of Andresen. “He’s going to have a heck of a career here. He’s got another year, so we’re excited to have him come back.
“People are going to start paying attention to him.”
Lincoln-Way Central trailed 6-0 after the first quarter but took a 7-6 lead in the second. A 35-yard catch from Andresen on third-and-13 kept the drive alive. He ended it with a 38-yard TD catch.
“I definitely felt a huge momentum shift for our team and I just wanted to help my team out and get the win,” Andresen said. “I try to show my best every game.
“When it comes down to the big moments where I have to shine bright and perform for the people around me, I just put my team in the best spot to win.”
Brown ended up with nine catches for 93 yards and 3 TDs to pace Batavia (13-1). Michael Vander Luitgaren passed for 210 yards and three TDs. Bodi Anderson also threw a TD pass.
Tulk’s TD run, however, gave the Knights a 14-6 lead. Andresen pulled down a 12-yard catch on fourth-and-4 to keep that drive alive, but Batavia cut the deficit to 14-12 at halftime.
The score stayed that way until Brown’s 8-yard TD catch handed Batavia an 18-14 lead with 5:31 left in the fourth. The Knights answered with another scoring drive of their own.
Andresen contributed a 35-yard catch during the nine-play, 65-yard scoring drive. Woodburn’s TD run put the Knights on top 21-18 with only 2:15 left.
Vander Luitgaren, a sophomore in only his seventh varsity game, knew Batavia had enough time to come back.
“You go into that, you’re down, two minutes left, and you just think, ‘I want to go win this thing,’” Vander Luitgaren said. “That’s what we did.”
Batavia delivered with an eight-play, 77-yard scoring drive — capped by Brown’s third TD catch of the game — to complete the comeback.
“Hats off the Batavia for coming back,” David Woodburn said. “The group of guys that we coached this year is absolutely amazing. I don’t have a lot of words right now. I didn’t prepare this speech.
“We felt good coming into this. We know they’re really good, a heck of a program, the kind of program you want to be. We had them on the ropes for a little while. We just didn’t get it done.”
Andresen put the setback in perspective for the upside of Lincoln-Way Central’s program.
“Unfortunately, the loss just stinks,” Andresen said. “I hate seeing all these seniors sad. I’m really close with all of them and I love them all. We have to keep going.
“The legacy of our seniors started last year. I love where this group is going.”
Paul Johnson is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
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