Looking back on being a kid, Lockport’s Jordan Kemp talked about running track and playing basketball. He also wanted to play football, but his mother, Durriyyah, had other ideas.

“I kept asking my mom to play, but she wouldn’t let me,” said Kemp, who followed his mother’s wishes. “Then when I turned 12, she put me on the field — finally.”

Kemp navigated the waiting game back then to play football. As a senior running back who transferred from Bolingbrook, he also needed patience to break into the Porters’ lineup.

Even Friday night, he needed that patience as he didn’t touch the ball until the second half of a 41-16 victory over visiting Andrew in a SouthWest Suburban Conference crossover.

Still, Kemp finished with 132 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries for Lockport (4-3), which snapped a three-game losing streak. Senior quarterback Drew Gallagher added 127 yards and a TD on nine carries.

With Elijah Beltran, Aidan Preciado and Johnny Wesolowski combining for 16 carries against Andrew (3-4), Kemp had to wait his turn before putting on a show, which included six runs of 10 or more yards.

“We rotate them every three or four plays,” Lockport coach George Czart said of his running backs. “When you have talent like that, they all work hard and deserve to play.

“When Jordan got here in the summer, we had seniors who busted their butts the last few years. We weren’t going to hand it to somebody else who just came here. He could have quit, pouted and cried, but he sees how hard the other kids work and they feed off each other.”

Again, it’s patience.

Growing up, Kemp said his mom was reading about football and found out that age 12 was when a player’s body develops to the point they can start playing safely. He was on the field for the Bolingbrook Trojans in seventh grade and hasn’t looked back.

And now, while Kemp may not get the ball 20 or 30 times a game, he has been impressive when he does have the ball in his hands.

“He runs hard and he runs over people,” Czart said. “He’s always going forward. You rarely see him get pushed back. After Jordan runs a guy over, that guy kind of finds a way not to get in his way anymore.”

Gallagher is impressed with Kemp’s strength as well.

“He is more powerful than any linebacker or defensive back that we have faced,” Gallagher said. “He hits the hole like none other.”

Aside from breaking the losing streak, the Porters are now in a position to just need one win over their final two opponents — Bolingbrook and Homewood-Flossmoor — to be eligible for the playoffs.

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Andrew, however, needs to beat both Lincoln-Way Central and Lincoln-Way West, teams that had 5-1 records heading into Friday. Brady Tranquilut and Drew Silvia scored rushing TDs for Andrew in the loss to Lockport.

The 5-foot-9, 190-pound Kemp, meanwhile, is attracting college interest from St. Ambrose. He hopes the Porters, who won the 2021 Class 8A state championship, can go deep in the playoffs this season. It would give him more film to highlight.

One of the reasons Kemp wanted to play for Lockport over Bolingbrook is he saw how much the Porters used their running backs, as opposed to the Raiders making a lot of noise with the passing game.

So, Friday night when Lockport visits Bolingbrook?

“I’m going to treat it as just another game,” Kemp said. “I’m going to try to run the same way I’ve run this whole season.

“But it would be a little sweeter if we can get the win in the end.”

Jeff Vorva is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.