Call it a stroke of genius.
Andrew Culotta wasn’t sure about changing positions on defense for his senior season, but the Batavia safety had faith in the decision of the coaching staff and stuck with the plan.
It turns out moving the 6-foot-1, 170-pound Culotta from cornerback made perfect sense.
“Middle of the season I moved,” Culotta said of the secondary switcheroo. “Coaches put me in the role. Sometimes, you have to do it for the team and that’s what you have to do.
“It’s a lot more demanding, filling the C gap and making more tackles. It’s a big change, but I’m more comfortable and have gotten a lot more confident than when I first started.”
Culotta turned the tables Saturday on upset-minded Glenbard North, coming up with three turnovers to seal a 42-27 victory for the host Bulldogs in a Class 7A state quarterfinal game.
Hitting a personal trifecta, Culotta returned an interception 67 yards for a touchdown, recovered a muffed punt to set up another TD and then recovered the ensuing onside kick for Batavia (10-2).
That allowed the Bulldogs to run out the clock on the Panthers (8-4).
“It got a lot closer,” Culotta said of his heroics at the end of the game. “They got the two fumbles, which hurt, but we stayed strong defensively and came out with a win.
“I’m not gonna lie, we were all out of position on the interception. They did a little hurry-up (offense) and we only had two to cover three. I saw the route, jumped it, broke a tackle and it was all blocking from teammates there.”
Facing strong crosswind gusts, junior quarterback Michael Vander Luitgaren still had a strong first half for Batavia, throwing for 130 of his 149 yards and four touchdowns, including a pair of TDs to Brett Berggren and one apiece to Thomas Prescott and Preston Brummel.
Glenbard North, however, took advantage of two straight turnovers in the third quarter to cut what had been a 21-point deficit down to a one-score game in setting the stage for a possible upset.
“I didn’t play that good of a second half,” Vander Luitgaren said. “That first fumble just popped out in that pile of bodies. The second one, I was handing off to Charlie Rosengren.
“I just overshot it. That was on me. I’ve gotta do better. We have to clean those up. We gave them a chance to get back in the game, but our defense stepped up and made plays.”
Big enough plays to advance Batavia to the semifinals for a fourth straight season. The Bulldogs will play next weekend against St. Rita (8-4), which defeated Hersey 56-42 in another quarterfinal.
Batavia coach Dennis Piron noted a running back had not lost a fumble for the Bulldogs since the first game of the season. He also credited senior punter Bodi Anderson on Culotta’s recovery.
“Bodi has been up and down with injuries, but one thing he’s done consistently is kick bombs,” Piron said. “His punts were field-position flippers. The one the kid misplayed was way up there.”
Culotta confirmed that he couldn’t locate the punt but didn’t see a signal for a fair catch.
“I’m going full speed, it bounces off him and I jumped on it,” he said. “Then the onside was a great call. There was a 15-yard penalty on the touchdown, so we were kicking 15 yards closer.
“It’s the second one we’ve executed this year and the other was against Glenbard North, too.”
It was a Cinderella season for the Panthers, who were winless two years ago but made the playoffs and won two games. They lost 41-13 to DuKane Conference rival Batavia in Week 3.
Piron, meanwhile, was delighted by Culotta’s performance.
“This past spring, he high jumped downstate for us and was on our relay teams and really competed,” Piron said. “He was deserving a big game. He made some big tackles, too.”