ROCKFORD – Zach Lane, playing with a partially torn ACL in his knee, planted hard and tried to cut Friday. A Hononegah defender hit him hard and bent him over backward.

Lane ran to the sideline, yelling all the way: “I’m good. I’m good. I’m good.”

Yes, he was. And so, as a result, were the Titans. Lane, playing for the first time in four weeks, threw for 126 yards and two touchdowns to lead Boylan to a 28-13 win over Hononegah. Boylan (8-0) now plays at Harlem (also 8-0) for the NIC-10 title next week.

“It felt real good to get him back. He helped our team flow,” said Shane Zackery, who caught five passes for 50 yards in his first game in three weeks after suffering a high ankle sprain.

Lane’s return inspired the Titans.

“With an injury like that,” running back Will Sahlstrom said, “you expect him to be out for the season and talking about next year.”

Instead, Lane decided he’d have surgery after the season and in the meantime try to first strengthen his leg, and then play through the injury.

“I knew what I was up against, but there was no doubt I’d leave my family out here and call it quits on a good season,” Lane said. “I knew what we have going. I could never just walk away.”

The Titans needed Lane to stretch their NIC-10 winning streak to 28 games, second in conference history. Hononegah (6-2) took a 3-0 lead on Matt Adams’ 37-yard field goal. Boylan answered with Lane’s 41-yard TD pass to Paul Barmore.

Hononegah fumbled the ensuing kickoff and Boylan scored on Sahlstrom’s 6-yard run to go ahead 14-3. Michael Morman, who alternated with Lane most of the first half, threw a 14-yard pass to Zackery on fourth-and-8 to keep the drive alive.

But Hononegah answered again with a 70-yard drive, highlighted by a 24-yard scramble on fourth-and-7 by sophomore quarterback Chase Robinson and concluding in a 3-yard run by Collin Rohs to make it 14-10.

Those were the only two times Hononegah had the ball until the Indians took over on their own 2 with 2:20 left in the half. They got as far as the Boylan 42 before Matt Schmeling intercepted Robinson. Fullback Brett McWilliams, who ran for 111 yards on 17 carries, then saved a touchdown by tackling Schmeling from behind.

The rest of the game went much the same way. Hononegah would drive, but Boylan would get a big sack or a turnover to stop the Indians.

“We had a lot of heart and dug deep,” Boylan defensive back Justin Janicke said.

Boylan also dropped three potential long touchdown passes.

“Without Zack the last three weeks, we put in a different kind of offense so we can minimize our passing game,” Boylan coach Dan Appino said. “Now with him back in, we have some execution issues we have to work out.”

Lane’s 18-yard TD pass to Morman on fourth-and-5 pushed Boylan’s lead to 21-10, but Adams kicked a 29-yard field goal to make it 21-13 with 10:02 to play. But Hononegah fumbled at the Boylan 34 with just over two minutes to play and Zack Smith scored on a 46-yard run two plays later.

“We made mistakes. They didn’t,” said Dustin Meier, who caught seven passes for 73 yards for Hononegah. “That was the ending factor in the game.”

Well, that and the return of Zach Lane.

“Lane showed how he’s the leader of their team tonight,” Meier agreed.

“He lived according to our expectations,” Appino said. “You go hard. If you can’t do it, we’ll get somebody else. He didn’t want to let anybody else do it.”

— Matt Trowbridge, rrstar.com