O’NEILL — Victory tastes sweet. Especially at playoffs time.
Elgin Public-Pope John capitalized on a Dylon Lueking interception with less than two minutes left in the game to claim a 30 to 26 victory over O’Neill St. Mary’s.
“Our kids were very confident coming in (to the game),” Coach Greg Wemhoff said. “We thought we could play with these guys. We executed the game plan for the most part pretty well.”
The Wolfpack, after surrendering an early first quarter touchdown, dominated until late in the fourth quarter when the Cardinals closed to within one score.
After an Aidan Hedstrom touchdown pass to Isaac Everitt cut the score to 30 to 26 with just under three minutes to play, the Cardinals got the ball back near midfield when they stripped the ball from Wolfpack quarterback Paiton Hoefer and Everitt recovered.
Then, on the very next play, quarterback Aidan Hedstrom rolled to his right to avoid Wolfpack pressure and threw into a crowd where Lueking picked off the ball to end the Cardinals’ last gasp at victory.
Lueking’s second inter-ception of the game capped a big day for the sophomore linebacker who led the team with 14 tackles.
“I saw the ball coming out of Hedstrom’s hands and there’s no way they’re going to catch it. I reached out and got it,” Lueking said moments after the game. For the complete story turn to this week’s edition of the Elgin Review.
