Public League football has long been dominated by South Side programs like Simeon, Morgan Park, Phillips and Kenwood.
But the North Side has been on the rise as Lane, Taft and Amundsen have made strides in recent years. Now Lincoln Park wants to move into the city’s upper echelon.
The Lions stayed perfect and became IHSA playoff-eligible by shutting out Senn 28-0 Saturday at Winnemac Stadium.
Dual-threat quarterback Cam Toussaint ran for two touchdowns and passed for 84 yards for Lincoln Park (5-0, 4-0 Public League White Northwest). Will Greve ran for a TD and sparked a defense that held Senn (4-1, 3-1) to 56 total yards.
“We want to be the best team in Lincoln Park history for sure,” Greve said. “If we go 9-0, we can achieve that. And then we’re coming for that city title.”
Moving up from the second-tier White to the top-level Red is another program goal. Lions coach Ricky Ludwig wants his players to dream big.
“That’s what we’ve been trying to explain to guys,” Ludwig said. “Big school, ton of athletes. The numbers when I showed up, they weren’t terrible. But with a school of 2,000 kids, we can get more.”
This year, Lincoln Park has around 80 players at all levels. Ludwig would like to get that number past 100.
“That is the goal, to build this program up, to be able to compete in the [Class] 7A playoffs,” he said.
Toussaint had a more modest personal goal this year. He just wanted to play after being sidelined all last season by injury.
“Man, it feels great,” Toussaint said. “Football is my first love. Missing the whole season, it hurt last year.”
Greve, who like Toussaint also plays basketball, is glad to have him back.
“We’ve been teammates as long as I can remember in high school,” Greve said. “It feels great to have somebody I know in the pocket. We need a good quarterback.
“I remember a couple years ago it was a little rough. Our quarterback got hurt in game one.”
Lincoln Park wore down Senn, which dressed all 20 players in its program.
Including Toussaint, the Lions had seven ball-carriers. Kody Tate, who had a 39-yard touchdown run, finished with a game-high 66 yards on five carries. Keontae Maddox added 45 yards on seven rushes.
“We have a couple good running backs, a lot of receivers,” Ludwig said. “Our biggest strength is we’ve probably got about seven or eight guys who at any point could break a big run or catch. That’s nice, because you can’t really focus on one single guy in our offense.”
Greve, whose touchdown was his first of the season, is part of that deep group of playmakers.
“I love playing offense,” Greve said. “I wasn’t really sure about it coming into the season, but I’m conditioned and I’m ready for it.”
Junior quarterback Thijs Fosco threw for 67 yards for Senn.
“They were just way better than us,” Senn coach Jason Yolich said of Lincoln Park. “We’re building. ... I’ve just got a lot of kids who never played football before so it’s a slow process.”
