Two years ago, Drew Gallagher stood on the sideline as one of the handful of sophomores brought up by Lockport during its playoff run to the Class 8A state title.

In the state championship game, he watched his older brother, Ethan, intercept a pass and force a fumble to spark a 24-6 victory over Maine South at Huskie Stadium in DeKalb.

“It was amazing,” Drew Gallagher recalled. “The whole time, I was just visualizing how it would be if I was out there. That’s the competitor in me.”

Now a senior quarterback, the competitor in Gallagher wants that experience again — and he has just one more shot at it for the Porters (3-3), who want to stop a recent slide.

Lockport opened the season with nonconference wins over Plainfield North, Wheaton North and Naperville Central. Those three teams entered this week a combined 11-7.

Then, the Porters saw a reversal of fortune with a 30-28 SouthWest Suburban Blue loss to Sandburg, a 38-32 loss to Bradley-Bourbonnais in a conference crossover game and a 41-0 conference loss on homecoming to Lincoln-Way East

With games left against Andrew, Bolingbrook and Homewood-Flossmoor — all teams sitting with 3-3 records — Gallagher realizes it’s time for Lockport to return to its earlier form.

“Besides the Lincoln-Way East game, we’ve had very good first halves the first five games,” he said. “We have to play a whole game the same way we play the first half.

“If we do that, I think we could genuinely be a very good team. We can’t ease off the pedal and let teams come back against us.”

Lockport coach George Czart is not a fan of using two-way players, but he employed Gallagher as a quarterback and safety last season.

This fall, the 6-foot-3, 185-pound Gallager has been used exclusively on offense but that could change.

“I’m thinking of grabbing him on defense,” Czart said. “He’s just a good football player. You want those guys on the field as much as possible.”

Gallagher also confirmed he wants to be on the field as much as possible.

“I would love to play defense,” he said. “I’ll do anything I can do to put our team in the best situation.

“If we’re struggling somewhere, I’ll gladly play both ways in the entire game and lay in my bed the whole next day.”

Well, the latter part might not happen as he has visits in the works with Wisconsin Whitewater, Wisconsin-Platteville and St. Xavier in the upcoming weeks.

Whitewater would provide an interesting dynamic.

Ethan Gallagher, a sophomore linebacker, has 35 tackles, two tackles for losses and a sack in 13 career games for the Eagles, who were NCAA Division III national champions six times from 2007 to 2014 and since then have been in the Final Four on four occasions.

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And Drew credits Ethan for his success in the sport.

“We’re close,” Drew said. “Pretty much everything I’ve done in my life he’s done. It was always easy to look up to him. I see him as a role model.”

At the same time, Drew is trying to be a role model and leader for the Porters heading into their final three regular-season games.

He pointed out he’s not a rah-rah guy but thinks he can get his message across.

“I’m a lead-by-example guy, 100%,” he said. “I’m not running around screaming and all that.

“I tell them, ‘This is what we’re going to do and we’re going to do it just like this.’ When I can do that, people listen, and it usually works out for us.”

Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.