Chicago-Area High School Football News and Scores | Season Pass

With a bounce here or there, Lincoln-Way Central could be sitting pretty at 3-1 instead of the reality of being 1-3.

The Knights blew a 17-7 fourth-quarter lead to Homewood-Flossmoor in Week 3 and lost 21-17.

They held Sandburg to seven points in Week 4, but couldn’t produce enough offense and dropped a 7-3 decision.

“It’s frustrating, because in all honesty we’re about three plays from being 3-1 instead of 1-3,” Central coach Brett Hefner said. “We’ll go back to work this week and try to pick one up (win).”

Hefner isn’t pointing fingers at his players. He’s pointing the finger of blame at himself.

“We have to finish drives and as the play-caller, I’ll take responsibility for it and look to do things differently,” he said. “We’ve got to be more aggressive in early down and distance situations. I have to make more of a concerted effort to throw the ball earlier in the down to take pressure off the running game.”

Running back Kyle Wayteck had a nice season, rushing for 476 yards and four touchdowns. The offensive line of Josh Wilson, Matt Leibovitz, Parker Young, John Rubino and Bryan

Ditchman for the most part, has performed well.

The defense has kept the Knights in games. Led by the line of Evan Panfil, Grant Bartell and Joe Lyman, along with linebacker Matt Schneider and safety Nick Bechtold, Central has allowed 28 points combined the past two weeks.

Oak Lawn earns first win

It didn’t arrive as quickly as coach Sean Lucas would have liked, but Oak Lawn scored its first win of the season Friday over previously undefeated Reavis.

“It was a relief to get out of the way,” said Lucas, whose Spartans are 1-3. “We just have to keep battling.”

Lucas praised the seasonlong play of tight end/safety Sean Altenburg, receiver Nick Anderson and cornerback/running back Ahmad Shatat.

Up next for Oak Lawn is crosstown rival Richards (3-1).

“The biggest thing we need to do is limit the big play,” Lucas said. “Defensively, we need to rally to the ball and tackle well. Offensively, we need to take care of the ball.”