NEW LENOX – Batavia Coach Dennis Piron claimed there were no exciting halftime speeches or mountains of wisdom imparted to his team during halftime of Saturday afternoon’s Class 7A second-round game. Lincoln Road West.

Maybe this is true.

But the message to the Bulldogs was certainly delivered loud and clear; Batavia made a furious effort to escape and advance to the quarterfinals by beating Lincoln-Way West 25-21 in the second half.

Batavia (10-1) will host Downers Grove North in the quarterfinal round next weekend. Downers Grove North defeated Fenwick 13-10 on a late field goal.

Lincoln-Way West ends its season with a 7-4 record.

“I think we woke up a little bit,” Piron said about halftime. “We had a chance to score just before half-time and even though we didn’t it was like, ‘Come on!’ It was like. So I thought: ‘Guys, we should probably have 21 points right now. … Let’s execute it and get it done.”

While Lincoln-Way West improved, Batavia couldn’t quite do so in the first half. The Bulldogs turned the ball over on downs on their first possession and the Warriors quickly captured the field score with a 44-yard touchdown pass from Chase Hetfleisch to Chase Markowitz.

Markowitz then blocked Batavia’s red zone throw with an interception, and although the Warriors did not cash it in for any points, they would add another touchdown pass from Hetfleisch to Markowitz from 11 yards out. Moments later, Hetfleisch hit DeAndre Coates for a 10-yard score to give Lincoln-Way West a 21-0 lead.

Batavia’s offense continued to be disrupted and appeared as if it would be shut down in the first half when a drive stalled at the Lincoln-Way West 24-yard line. But Batavia took a fake gamble and it paid off. When Isaiah Brown immediately threw the ball to Keegan Harp, Harp closed the gap to 21-7 with a 76-yard field goal.

Batavia then quickly forced a punt and loosened the reins on sophomore quarterback Michael Vander; Vander completed a 56-yard pass to Brown and another 20-yard dart to Greyson Kelly inside the Lincoln-Way West 5-yard line, but time expired at 12:00. Half time before the Bulldogs could try to make another move.

It wasn’t a goal-scoring move, but it gave Batavia the belief that they could move the football.

That’s exactly what he did after the break.

Vander took a quick drive that resulted in a 14-yard touchdown pass to Brown (eight receptions, 179 yards). The extra point attempt was blocked, but Batavia was officially down 21-13 within striking distance.

As the third quarter came to a close, Batavia posed another serious threat and moved the ball deep into Lincoln-Way West territory. But with the ball resting at the 2-yard line on the final play of the quarter, Nathan Whitwell released the ball as he scrambled for extra distance and it appeared to be a pivotal game-changing moment.

But it seems the whole mistake was to further inflame Batavia. Lincoln-Way West was unable to do much on the next possession, punting the ball back to Batavia for Batavia to get back into the game; Batavia had a long, painstaking drive that included two big connections between Vander and Brown before scoring another point with 3:41 to play. – Vander throws a 6-yard touchdown pass to Lucas Stevenson.

However, Batavia once again failed to convert and fell behind 21-19.

The Bulldogs quickly forced a three-and-out, and almost inexplicably Vander, who didn’t start a varsity game until Week 7, went right back to work.

He hit Brown for a 5-yard gain, and 15 more followed after a Lincoln-Way West penalty. So Vander, setting up shop at the Lincoln-Way West 48-yard line, allowed one to go to Brett Berggren. He crashed into the end zone for what turned out to be the decisive score.

“We were all hungry to get this win,” Vander said. “No one went down, no one kept their head down, everyone was picking each other up, they were great teammates. Then we came here and missed 25 of them.”

Lincoln-Way West still had just over two minutes to respond, but the offensive spigot that was wide open in the first half was turned off for most of the final two quarters. The Warriors threw four incompletions and Whitwell, who started slowly and finished with a 98-yard rushing effort, converted a first down for the Bulldogs and allowed them to seal the stunning victory.

This loss was extremely difficult for Lincoln-Way West to swallow.

“This is a second round football match that could easily be a semi-final or final. Two of the best teams in Class 7A. I really believe that, and I know Batavia knows that,” Lincoln-Way West coach Luke Lokanc said. “I wish these guys had played one more game together next week, but we got a semifinal, final type game in the second round.”