Lakes adds to Prairie proficiency

It took Lakes a while to get going.

But eventually, the Eagles rolled and rolled, just as their winning streak through the North Suburban Conference Prairie Division has over the years.

Lakes blew the doors open after halftime Saturday afternoon against host North Chicago and wound up leaving town with a 34-6 victory. The Eagles were up just 7-6 at halftime but scored four unanswered touchdowns in the second half.

The victory gives Lakes its fifth straight Prairie Division championship and extends its winning streak in the division to 27 straight games. The Eagles are now 6-2 on the season and a playoff qualifier after starting 0-2.

"Honestly, the streak is nothing we stress, it's not even a goal, but it's a ton of pressure for our kids," Lakes coach Luke Mertens said. "No senior class wants to be the group to give it up. It's like this tremendous burden on the senior class that they didn't even ask for.

"But it's all the kids hear about. And everybody wants to beat you so bad. It's a lot of pressure on the kids."

North Chicago (1-7) put the pressure on Lakes early.

After the Eagles scored on their opening drive, on an 11-yard touchdown run by quarterback Jordan Mercure, the Warhawks made it tough for Lakes to move the ball with any consistency.

"Defensively, we were just getting after them," North Chicago coach Darell King said. "We were stopping them and the kids were hungry."

North Chicago also scored on its first series of the game. A 14-yard pass from quarterback Damond Washington to Jajuan Harris and a missed 2-point conversion attempt made the score 7-6 Lakes.

"From film, we knew that Lakes is man-to-man, so we knew we could go deep on them," said Washington, who completed 15-of-33 passes for 189 yards, the bulk of which went to Undra Smith (9 catches, 102 yards). "That was a good start for us."

Nothing changed on the scoreboard until midway through the third quarter when Mercure engineered a 10-play drive that ended with him running in a touchdown from four yards out.

The Eagles then scored three fourth-quarter touchdowns, a 25-yard run by Leon Small, a 56-yard run by Ethan Greenfield and a 22-yard pass from back-up quarterback Colton Jewell to Nicholas Garcia.

"In the first half, we played down to their level and we gave them hope," said Mercure, who completed 13-of-18 passes for 140 yards. He also rushed for 86 yards on 21 carries. "At halftime, the coaches didn't even talk to us. We just talked to each other and we talked about how we need to get going in the second half and play like we should.

"We just came in here expecting to go right through (North Chicago) without trying just because they don't have a good record. But obviously, that wasn't good. They weren't bad."

With not nearly as much depth as Lakes, North Chicago became fatigued as the game wore on.

Lakes had the luxury of digging deep into its stable of athletes and used seven different players to carry the ball. Meanwhile, seven different players caught passes. They all contributed to 457 yards of offense for Lakes.

Greenfield led the way on the ground with 102 rushing yards on 6 carries. Nicholas Austill led the receiving corps with 4 catches for 86 yards.

"Fresh legs…it's important," Mertens said. "It's really important to be able to rotate guys through. It's important to be balanced."