Lake Zurich 16, Stevenson 7

It's debatable what took more out of Brent Marks.

First, he made a leaping, late fourth quarter interception in the red zone to seal Lake Zurich's 16-7 victory over host Stevenson on Friday night.

Then, he immediately popped up off the ground and sprinted the entire length of the Lake Zurich sideline, waving his arms and hooting and hollering as he enjoyed the moment in front of the hundreds of cheering fans in the visiting bleachers.

"That was exhausting, but it was worth it," Marks said of his celebratory sprint. "That was the greatest moment of my high school career. I've never had a moment like that happen to me before."

Marks, who starts at linebacker for Lake Zurich (2-1, 1-0 North Suburban Lake Division), says that he made an interception against Zion-Benton last season, but that it hardly compares to his latest.

This time, Marks' big play couldn't have been any more timely.

Stevenson (0-3, 0-1 Lake) fell behind by 9 points when Lake Zurich kicker Kevin Johnson nailed his third field goal of the night (22 yards) with 5:19 left in the game.

The Patriots then drove down the field and advanced all the way to the Lake Zurich 7-yard line with 3:19 still remaining. An interference penalty backed the Patriots up to the 22-yard line, but quarterback Zach Wujcik wasn't about to back down.

He had already completed five big passes on the drive -- all of which landed in the hands of Daniel Morales (10 catches, 142 yards).

But Wujcik's next throw wound up in Marks' hands.

"Big players step up in big games and it doesn't get any bigger than that," Lake Zurich coach Bryan Stortz said of Marks' interception. "(That play) was huge.

We needed a play and he did it. Our defense did a great job play after play."

Especially against the run.

Lake Zurich held Stevenson, which has built its reputation on a crushing, run-oriented offense, to just 75 rushing yards on the night.

"We shut them down," Marks said. "We studied a lot of film on them and we filled it hard."

On the flip side, Lake Zurich managed to move the ball fairly well on the ground, as three backs -- Jon Janus (118 yards), Adam Simpson (85 yards) and Dan Kalcsics (72 yards) -- finished with nice numbers.

However, the Stevenson defense allowed Lake Zurich in the end zone just once -- a 21-yard Bobby DeLeo touchdown run in the second quarter.

A Kevin Johnson 40-yard field goal later in the period gave the Bears a 10-0 lead at halftime.

Johnson kicked another field goal (27 yards) to put Lake Zurich up 13-0 with 5:19 left in the third quarter.

The Patriots finally got on the board just before the quarter ended when Wujcik hit Kevin Moffat with a 5-yard pass.

"This is hard, but what's done is done," Morales said of the loss, which puts Stevenson on the brink of its first playoff miss since 1988. "We just have to start thinking about next week so we can get our first win. We definitely have the character to bounce back."