Simpson, LZ grind past RM

It's no wonder Adam Simpson felt compelled to give a shout out to the athletic trainers at Lake Zurich on Saturday afternoon.

Just like him, they had a lot to do with the Bears' hard-fought 10-7 victory over visiting Rolling Meadows in the second round of the Class 7A state playoffs.

For starters, they kept Simpson in the game. And all he did while he was in there was score the winning touchdown, keep the Lake Zurich offense intact when its top player went down with an injury, and make tons of other big plays on defense and special teams.

"I'm so proud of our team -- our offensive line, our defensive line, our defense, our offense, I mean everyone. Coaches, trainers," the starting fullback chirped as the Bears celebrated their second straight quarterfinals berth. "The trainers have been taking really good care of me all year and did a great job today."

Simpson is nursing a strained groin muscle.

When it got stiff, the Lake Zurich trainers helped him walk along the sideline to loosen it up. They also readjusted his tape and bandages.

Whatever TLC Simpson needed, he got.

After all, the Bears couldn't afford for another key back to go down.

Simpson was carrying the load for star running back Jon Janus, who left the game in the first quarter shortly after turning a screen pass into a 63-yard gain. He strained his shoulder on the play and spent the rest of the game watching from the sideline.

"I loved seeing what everyone did," said Janus, who is determined to return to the field for the next game, but was headed to the hospital to get an official prognosis on his injury. "Especially Adam. He did incredible. Everything he did was perfect. He did everything you could ask for."

In playing through the pain, Simpson not only rushed for 99 yards, including the deciding touchdown early in the fourth quarter that went for 29 yards, but he also forced a late fumble and had a monster day punting the ball, averaging more than 40 yards over 7 punts.

His last punt went for 50 yards and gave the Mustangs a long field as they scrambled in vain in the waning seconds to get into field goal range.

"I'm beat up," said Simpson, who also plays linebacker and never leaves the field. "But it meant a lot for me and Jon (Janus). He's carried our team all year. It felt good to be able to do the same for him, to give him another shot next week."

Simpson can also spend the next week resting and healing up for top-seeded and undefeated Rockford Boylan (11-0), which looms in the quarterfinals.

The No. 4 Bears (10-1) will travel to Rockford for the game.

"It's good to win a dogfight like this in the playoffs because your kids know that we can win a game like this," Lake Zurich coach Bryan Stortz said. "Hopefully, that will give us an edge (as the playoffs continue)."

Lake Zurich struck first with a Kevin Johnson 27-yard field goal in the first quarter, but Rolling Meadows answered just before the half when running back Mikal Johnson (19 carries, 85 yards) capped off a six-play drive with a 2-yard touchdown run.

That gave the Mustangs (9-2) a 7-3 lead at the break.

Then, the defenses, two of the stingiest in Class 7A, went to work.

Rolling Meadows quarterback Ben Sabal rolled up 213 yards on 17-of-31 passing and guided the offense to a 307-yard day. But he couldn't get his guys past the Lake Zurich defense and back in the end zone.

Meanwhile, the Bears rolled up a lot of yards (315 on the game), but also didn't do much with them, thanks to the Rolling Meadows defense. Lake Zurich managed to finally get into the end zone only after Simpson scratched and clawed to get there.

He turned what looked to be a small gain into a score by bouncing off defenders and keeping his feet churning.

"I thought both defenses played extremely well. Those were two fast and physical defenses," Rolling Meadows coach Doug Millsaps said. "But (Lake Zurich) had that one drive where they ran really hard and we didn't tackle so well and they got in the end zone. That's essentially what it came down to. (Simpson) gave that little extra effort."

But in the end, that little extra effort had big implications for both sides.

"It's hard. We really wanted to win," Sabal said. "It's hard to know that the guys you were playing with the last four years, you're not going to be playing with them anymore."