Diverse approach leads to a big Lake Park win
Variety, the spice of life, can also win football games.
Lake Park, with the help of a multi-faceted offense, cruised past host Metea Valley on Friday night 41-0.
"It's been throughout the season that somebody has been missing for us. Tonight was the first game that everyone played together," said Lancers coach Chris Roll. "Up to this point, we had been playing a little tight."
The victory broke a three-game losing streak.
Lake Park (3-3 overall, 3-2 DuPage Valley Conference) had five running backs and two quarterbacks run the ball, and quarterback Jackson Behles threw for 223 yards to eight receivers. Carlos Feliciano threw to a ninth receiver when he came in with the Lancers firmly in the driver's seat.
"People are unsatisfied," Roll said. "Everyone wants the ball, but it's a positive thing. They are excited to see everyone successful."
The Lancers scored on five of their six possessions in the first half.
Lake Park blocked Metea's first punt of the night which put it on the Mustang 31. Four plays later, Behles found Nick Carzoli open for a 15-yard TD pass, 4:45 into the game.
Jake Carvalho scored twice for the Lancers in the first half. Behles also ran for a score and threw a TD toss 25 yards to Diamante Smith to give their team a 35-0 halftime lead.
"We had a better week of practice. We were more confident and we worked harder," Behles said.
He finished out Lake Park's scoring on the team's first possession of the second half, throwing an 18-yard pass to Jordan Colon in the end zone to start the running clock.
While the offense had a big night, so did the defense as it held Metea (0-6, 0-6) to 80 yards total offense in the first half.
"The first three series, they were aggressive and exacting," Roll said. "We had a great practice Wednesday night on both sides of the ball where we figured some things out and tried to get rid of the some of the baggage that we've been carrying the last couple of weeks because of some of the losses."
Lake Park returns home next week to host Glenbard North.
Metea quarterback Garrett Despot left the game about two minutes in with a shoulder injury and did not return. Coach Ben Kleinhans said Despot will have an MRI on Monday.
It was the final home game of the regular season for the Mustangs. The team finishes the season next week at Wheaton Warrenville South followed by trips to Glenbard North and Rock Island.
"We've faced adversity and we always seem to bounce back and be ready to go. We have three weeks of football left and we're going to make the most of it," Kleinhans said.