Bears top Carmel, earn return to Champaign

The Bears are back.

Back-to-back, that is.

On a cold and soggy Saturday night in Mundelein, Lake Zurich earned the right to trek to Champaign and play in the Class 7A state championship game for the second consecutive season.

The Bears survived host Carmel 17-7 in the state semifinals in front of a standing-room-only crowd of about 7,000.

"This is great," said Lake Zurich running back Adam Simpson, who ran for 63 yards and opened up the scoring with a 26-yard touchdown run late in the first quarter. "Other than last year, it's the best feeling I've had in a long time."

Next up for the 12-1 Bears is undefeated Wheaton Warrenville South (13-0), which pounded East St. Louis 26-0 earlier in the day.

The two teams will face off at 4 p.m. on Saturday at Memorial Stadium on the campus of the University of Illinois.

Ironically, Wheaton Warrenville South (13-0) also was in Champaign last year. The Tigers won the Class 8A state championship by defeating Mt. Carmel 44-21.

"We'll be playing a very tough team (in Wheaton Warrenville South)," Lake Zurich coach Bryan Stortz said. "But we feel like we're not done yet."

Lake Zurich has unfinished business in Champaign. The Bears lost to St. Rita last year, 35-21.

"It's hard to get back (downstate) two years in a row," said Lake Zurich linebacker Brent Marks, who helped the defense put the clamps on a Carmel offense that is used to racking up the yards. Against the Bears, the Corsairs mustered a total of just 113 yards.

"But I think this program made a statement tonight," Marks said. "We're ready, we're here and we're coming to play."

The Bears broke open what had turned into a punt-fest when Jon Janus (16 carries, 147 yards) made a bleak situation blissful. He busted a school-record 98-yard touchdown run midway through the third quarter.

"I was feeling like we were back (at the state meet) in track," said Janus, a sprinter who went downstate last spring with the track team. "I just wanted to keep on running and not lose my breath or pull a muscle."

Lake Zurich had gotten pinned at its 1-yard line, thanks to a spectacular 40-yard punt by Carmel reserve punter Jake Sinkovec.

But the Bears dodged that bullet just like they did a couple of others.

In the first quarter, Lake Zurich quarterback Bobby DeLeo threw a pass that was picked off by Sinkovec and Sinkovec ran in for a touchdown. But the touchdown was negated by a Carmel penalty.

Carmel got the ball back but couldn't score.

When Lake Zurich failed to convert on a fake punt near the end of the second quarter, Carmel marched the ball down to the 10-yard line but couldn't punch the ball into the end zone and also missed on its field goal attempt.

The Bears also lost the ball on a fumble near the end of the third quarter, but Carmel failed to score that time as well.

"We had a couple of short fields and we didn't convert on them," said Carmel coach Andy Bitto, whose team finishes with a 10-3 record. "They made the big plays when they had to and we didn't and that's just a testament to how good of a team they are."

Of course, Carmel's cause wasn't helped by the fact that quarterback David Venegoni aggravated an already sore ankle on Carmel's first series of the game.

With Venegoni unable to do much running, that put the weight of Carmel's option offense squarely on the shoulders of 5-foot-5 running back Geoffery Fields.

Fields managed to gain 106 yards on 29 carries even thought pretty much everyone in the stadium knew that the ball was going to him.

"Every single time that kid touched the ball, he fell forward," Marks said. "He's a great running back."

Fields scored Carmel's only touchdown on a 1-yard run in the third quarter that came after Lake Zurich fumbled a punt return.

It was the only time the Corsairs took advantage of a Lake Zurich mistake.

"It's frustrating," Fields said. "But they were a tough defense and it was hard (with Venegoni playing injured).

"This is just hard right now. I don't like losing period. I don't like losing any game, but this is big and we were so close."

Lake Zurich kicker Kevin Johnson closed out the scoring, hitting a 22-yard field goal late in the fourth quarter for good measure.