OAK FOREST -- The story line was a rather familiar one -- Nagel leads Lemont High School to another big victory.
There was only one problem. It wasn't Notre Dame-bound Aaron who helped the Indians to a victory over Oak Forest on Friday.
Rather, it was his brother, Brett.
Brett Nagel took control of matters for Lemont after Aaron left with a leg injury in the first quarter and helped the Indians to a 21-0 first-half lead en route to a 31-20 win in a showdown of 3-0 teams in the South Suburban Blue Division.
The junior quarterback rushed for 108 yards on 15 carries and scored on runs of 50- and 9-yards to help the Indians (6-2, 4-0) to their sixth straight win plus a share of the SSC Blue title.
"When Aaron got hurt and they started cheering, everyone got fired up on our team," Brett Nagel said. "We came out and played the best part of our game. Our line, led by Dave Molk, was making big holes like they do every week and everyone was running hard.
"We all come together and play as a team, offense and defense. We don't want to share the conference championship ,so we have to play even better next week against Bremen."
Aaron Nagel rushed for 43 yards on 10 carries before going down late in the first quarter.
One play later, Bobby Earnest (10 carries for 60 yards) went 13 yards over the right side to collect the first score for the Indians with 2:27 remaining in the first quarter.
After the Bengals (6-2, 3-1) lost the ball on downs at Lemont's 41 early in the second quarter, the visitors needed just three plays to strike again.
Brett Nagel burst 50 yards down the right side and after an extra point kick by Ryan Dunne, Lemont took a 14-0 lead with 10:36 left in the half.
Later in the half, the Indians got the ball at the Bengal 42 and needed just two plays to score again as Nagel went in from nine yards to make it 21-0 with 3:02 left before the break.
Oak Forest finally got on the scoreboard with 1:12 left in the first half when Micky Nicholas (10-of-20, 97 yards, 3 interceptions, 2 TDs) connected with Jake Gloodt for a 34-yard pass.
The Bengals pulled to within 21-14 just 2:21 into the second half when Nicholas ran 32-yards for another touchdown.
On their next series, the Tigers nearly tied things up when Gloodt just missed connecting with Julian Ross, who had gotten well past Lemont's secondary on a surprise pass play.
Lemont increased its lead to 28-14 with 1:37 left in the third when Nick Carvell (8-55 rushing) scored on a 29-yard run.
Oak Forest kept the pressure on, however, when Nicholas tossed a shovel pass to Ben Kessens and he went 18 yards for a score to make it 28-20 on the first play of the fourth quarter.
But the Indians ended the drama when Dunne hit a 37-yard field goal with 5:26 left.
Brett Nagel stopped the next Bengal series with an interception, but Earnest fumbled the ball right back the next play.
Earnest quickly made amends for that by picking off Nicholas on the ensuing play for his second interception.
The Indians rushed for 300 yards on 50 attempts behind its formidable offensive line that's led by Michigan-bound Dave Molk and includes Nick Palermo, Trevor Rothstein, Jake Urbanski and Graham Pocic.
Lemont's defense limited the Bengals to 240 total yards with just 143 coming on the ground.
Trevor Newton had a pair of sacks for the Indians. Ryan Fejedelem, Molk and Pocic also contributed sacks for Lemont.
"I thought Brett did a great job of leading the team," said Lemont coach Eric Michaelsen. "He really put the team on his back and stepped up tonight. Being up by three scores was good, but we knew Oak Forest wasn't going to give up.
"They scored at the end of the half and the beginning of the third quarter, and it was like 'Whoa'.
"One of the things that I'm most proud of about our program is that we don't allow each other to use excuses, no matter what happens. You'll never hear anyone say that 'Dang it, Aaron got hurt.'"
Source: SuburbanChicagoNews.com
