Libertyville takes to the air in grounding Lake Zurich
Last week against Stevenson, Libertyville quarterback Riley Lees sprinted for an 80-yard touchdown run on the game's opening play.
Friday against Lake Zurich, the simple threat of the run created plenty of room for Libertyville's offense to operate and the host Wildcats stayed undefeated with a 41-21 victory in the North Suburban Lake Division.
With his impressive speed, Lees creates an assortment of problems for opposing defenses. For Lake Zurich, the defensive backs had their eyes on the quarterback, which allowed the wide receivers to get open and Lees threw for 223 yards.
There was a perfect example in the third quarter. After LZ scored to close within 22-7, Lees dropped back, took one step forward, which froze the defenders, then lofted a perfect 46-yard touchdown pass to Henry Schmidt on a post pattern. Schmidt scored 3 touchdowns on the night, including a fumble recovery in the end zone.
"(The defensive backs) just come up," said Schmidt, who had 6 catches for 100 yards. "Especially if you run play action, they just fly up and everyone's open over the top, not only me.
"It's just the fact that we could establish a run game early. Once we do that, we can do anything. Seams open up. Everything opens up when we get the run game going."
Noah Moderwell ran well in the first half, with 70 yards on 13 carries, but was lost to an ejection early in the third quarter. Lees finished with 64 rushing yards on 14 carries. Another key receiving target was Cam Shaffer, with 6 catches for 70 yards and a touchdown.
"We were concerned about (Lees) running and that's what we schemed for," LZ coach Dave Profitt said. "He came out and had guys wide open, which is, in my opinion, on us coaches. We didn't prepare our kids to defend the pass as well as we should."
Lake Zurich made things easy for the Wildcats early by losing fumbles on three of its first four offensive possessions. The first two fumbles were recovered by Libertyville's Riley Buncic and gave Lees a short field to work with.
On the first drive, Lees was sacked by LZ sophomore Jack Sanborn, setting up a third-and-goal at the 16-yard line, but the senior QB tossed a perfect slant pass to Schmidt for the opening touchdown.
The second fumble set up a 35-yard scoring drive. Passes to Schmidt and Tim Calamari set up a Lees 5-yard run. Five plays into the next Lake Zurich possession, a botched handoff was recovered by Dan Scheunemann at the Bears 40-yard line.
Lees capped a seven-play drive with a 1-yard run, making the score 19-0. Luke Uransel added a 25-yard field goal with 3:53 left in the first half.
Libertyville's offensive line of Tyler Jost, Jon Evers, Walker Hare, Sean O'Malley and Brad Deberry created plenty of room for the skill players to maneuver.
"The final margin is three scores. We turned it over three times and they scored all three times in the first half," Profitt said. "It's tough to win."
The Bears (2-4, 1-2) used a turnover of their own to stay in the game. Jermey Brown intercepted a long pass from Lees three plays into the third quarter and a pair of unsportsmanlike penalties put Lake Zurich in good position. Five plays later, Ben Klett put LZ on the board with a 4-yard touchdown run. The Bears added another touchdown in the third quarter on a 40-yard run by Kyle Roth. But the defense couldn't get any stops after the interception.