Thirty years is a long time to wait to win a share of a conference championship.
But when it finally does happen — and at the expense of a rival program, no less — that makes it all the sweeter.
By defeating Lincoln-Way East 21-13 on Oct. 23 in Frankfort, Sandburg (7-2, 5-2) earned a share of the Southwest Valley Blue title, the school’s first league championship since 1995.
Sandburg, Lincoln-Way East, Lockport and Naperville North all finished 5-2 in conference play to share the title.
“As an alum, this is a pretty special deal,” Eagles coach Sheamus Murphy said. “And the kids really rallied and they were excited about it.
“But now we’re 0-0. Throw the records out and throw the regular season accolades out and everything.”
Sandburg will host Lockport in the first round of the Class 8A playoffs. The Porters beat the Eagles 28-7 in Orland Park on Oct. 10.
Trailing 10-0 with 3:15 left in the first half, Sandburg drew to within 10-7 on a 44-yard pass from junior quarterback Sean Ruisz (13-of-21 passing, 163 yards) to Jeffery Bellik (three catches, 51 yards).
“Beating (Lincoln-Way East) is an amazing feeling,” Ruisz said. “That whole week of practice going in, Coach was going into the history of Sandburg. When he came in, he went on about the history of Sandburg and that was a big thing for him. …
“For us boys, we lost to them freshman year and we wanted to get our get-back and play our game. Taking down the wolf — the king wolf — that’s huge for us.”
After a field goal widened the Griffins’ advantage to 13-7, the Eagles took a 14-13 lead on a 38-yard TD strike from Ruisz to Quinn Durkin (three receptions, 50 yards) with 7:36 remaining in the fourth quarter.
“That’s a great connection between me and him,” Ruisz said. “Since the (Orland Park) Pioneers (youth football team), we’ve been playing together and training in the offseason. We know what we expect from each other and knowing the attributes we both hold and that plays well on the field.
“I know his speed and he knows my arm. He knows what I see and I know what he sees and the way he runs the routes. The connection just grew together through the Pioneers and mostly training in the offseason. We know this is the year to have our seniors’ backs and keeping each other up and talking to each other week by week. We know what we have to do.”
Sandburg scored once more as Ruisz found Lucas Matykiewicz (three catches, 38 yards) on a 31-yard TD pass with six seconds remaining.
“(Winning a share of the conference) is a blessing,” Ruisz said. “Bringing that back for Orland Park after some solid years at Sandburg but not getting that conference championship. We’re going for our first playoff win and it’s been a minute.
“We want to bring the success back to Orland Park. It’s a beautiful town and beautiful people and we’re bringing Sandburg’s name back to the way it used to be back then and that’s really good. With the class we have now, the community looks up to us and looks at us doing these good things. This class that we have, we’re showing what we can do.”