Not only was senior Myles Ellis excited to be back on the field against Lockport, the team he was playing against when he suffered a broken ankle in Week 9 last season, he was also happy to pretty much never leave the field for Homewood-Flossmoor.
Receiver. Defensive back. Kick returner. Punter. Holder. The North Dakota State recruit did it all for the Vikings.
“It’s just doing whatever my team needs me to do,” Ellis said. “That’s kind of the mindset I’m at now. It’s like whatever the team needs, I’ve got to be the guy to do it if there’s nobody else that can. Right now, it’s just learning anything. This game, I had to come in and hold. I’m punting and everything.
“It’s just being here for my team.”
Ellis doesn’t just play a lot of roles. He excels in all of them. He had two touchdown catches and two interceptions Friday night, lifting the Vikings to a 28-13 SouthWest Valley Blue win over the host Porters in Lockport.
Ellis finished with six catches for 157 yards for H-F (2-1, 1-0). Rahsaan Coleman completed 11 of 18 passes for 211 yards and two TDs. Layden Willams ran for 58 yards and two TDs on 20 carries.
Brendan Mecher completed 12 of 23 passes for 177 yards to lead Lockport (1-2, 0-1), including a 56-yard TD toss to Khairi Sias. Darrell McCullough forced a fumble that Andre Labuda recovered.
Ellis, meanwhile, flipped the game in H-F’s favor on a huge sequence late in the first half. First, he intercepted a pass in the end zone. Two plays later, he caught a short pass from Coleman and raced 78 yards for a TD to give the Vikings a 14-3 lead.
H-F coach Troy McAllister knows Ellis can change a game in a hurry.
“We’re putting him in a bunch of different places, and obviously with two touchdowns and two interceptions, you kind of got to see the full arsenal of Myles,” McAllister said. “This was part of his healing process, getting an opportunity to come out against Lockport, the team he got hurt against, and push back.
“It’s getting rid of some of those mental barriers.”
Ellis suffered the broken ankle in H-F’s 36-32 loss to Lockport last season, a setback that cost the Vikings a playoff berth.
He also missed the basketball season and part of the track season but returned to help the Vikings win a state championship in the 400 relay.
“It was just a moment I had to embrace,” Ellis said. “From the first diagnosis, I wasn’t going to be back until July. Coming back in April, that was just a blessing. The support I had from my family and the training staff was huge. They were a part of the journey, too.”
Coleman, a junior quarterback in his first year at H-F after transferring from Brother Rice, is thrilled about utilizing Ellis’ speed in the passing game. And there’s more.
“He’s so fast, and I know I have to put the ball in his hands and let him do his thing,” Coleman said. “It’s all about his drive. He’s willing to do everything. He’s just got so much motivation and he’s so fast, but he’s also a super smart receiver.”
Lockport closed within 21-13 on Sias’ long TD catch on the final play of the third quarter, but Coleman and Ellis again had the answer, connecting for a 34-yard TD to put the Vikings back up by 15.
Ellis hasn’t missed a beat in his return to the football field. He felt comfortable almost immediately.
First, however, he had to test his equipment.
“One thing was the same pair of cleats I broke my ankle in, they were the first pair I put back on this season,” Ellis said. “Just to get that, psychologically, out of my head.
“From that moment on, when I saw that it wasn’t the shoes, I was fine.”