Lakes resets with victory at Round Lake
After a heartbreaking Northern Lake County Conference loss to rival squad Antioch last week, visiting Lakes got back on the winning track Friday night at Round Lake.
The Eagles used a balanced offensive attack of running and passing as they built a commanding 35-0 halftime lead over the Panthers on their senior night before rolling to an impressive 49-0 NLCC victory.
Lakes (7-1, 5-1) travels to North Chicago for its final regular-season game next week while Round Lake (2-6, 0-6) dropped its sixth straight contest after opening the 2017 season 2-0.
After having to punt on their first possession, the Eagles offense got going offensively behind 27, and 13-yard runs by senior Ryan Selig on their second possession.
Then on a second-and-goal play from the 13, Lakes quarterback Jake Johnson (9-for-11, 206 yards passing) hit junior Dylan Keilwitz on a crossing pattern for the touchdown 4:31 into the opening quarter. The first of 7 extra points by Ryan Carr staked Lakes to an early 7-0 lead.
The Panthers did move the ball effectively on their ensuing possession as they marched from their 30 to the Lakes 14 mostly on the ground. But on first down, Lakes' Joven Troy Lorian recovered a fumble by Brandon Kisiel (36 yards on 11 attempts) and all of the momentum shifted back to the Eagles.
Round Lake struggled to find any answers to Lakes' diverse offensive attack as a play-action pass from Johnson to Selig resulted in a 31-yard scoring play to cap a pretty efficient 84-yard drive very late in the first quarter.
The Panthers offense suffered from pretty poor field position overall in the first half, and the Eagles took over at the Round Lake 35-yard-line early in the second quarter.
Six plays later, senior running back Ethan Greenfield (101 yards on 9 carries) hit Selig with a 2-yard TD pass on a jump-pass on third-and-goal from the 2 to boost the lead to 21-0 with 8:29 remaining in the first half.
Lakes also displayed its big-play capability when Johnson hit senior Quinn McQuade for a 79-yard TD play as McQuade caught the relatively short pass before managing to stay just inside the left sideline en route to the long scoring play.
Ahead 28-0, the Eagles scored one more time 55.4 seconds before halftime as Johnson hit Greenfield with a swing pass for an 11-yard touchdown and a 35-0 advantage.
"It was a great week of practice, and we showed it on the field today," said Johnson, whose team had 21 first downs. "We had a lot of different people scoring tonight so that was great, and it was fun to see."
After the Panthers were forced to punt to open the second half, Lakes marched 60 yards on four plays with Greenfield scoring on a 9-yard run up the middle for a 42-0 lead as the rest of the game was played with a running clock.
"We feel good that we're doing the things that we want to do, and the loss to Antioch last week was kind of a wake up call," said Lakes coach Jordan Eder, who was the head coach at Round Lake in 2013 and 2014. "We've been pretty balanced offensively all year, and that makes us dangerous and keeps people guessing."
Round Lake quarterback Alex Larson wound up 7-for-21 passing for 101 yards, including a 44-yard pass to Chandler Nixon to close out the first half. Larson added 32 yards on 11 rushes.
Carr added an 18-yard touchdown run with 6:37 to play to account for the final score.
"I've come back here to coach before (with Antioch), and it's a special place being the first place I coached," added Eder, whose team had 419 total yards of offense. "And it's good to see everybody here again."