The skinny on Lake Zurich vs. WWS
Lake Zurich (12-1) vs. Wheaton Warrenville South (13-0)
IHSA Class 7A state football championship game
4 p.m. Saturday at Memorial Stadium in Champaign
The game: Lake Zurich, champions of the North Suburban Conference Lake Division whose only loss came to Fremd in the season opener, is appearing in its second straight Class 7A title game, and second overall, in search of its first title. In 11 playoff appearances the Bears have advanced past the first round only three times. WW South, winners of 27 straight games and three straight DuPage Valley Conference titles, also makes its second straight title game appearance. The Tigers won the 8A crown last season, and a victory would give the program its sixth state title. WW South joins Morris and Bloomington Central Catholic this weekend in trying to become the first teams to win titles in four different classes. This will be the first playoff meeting between the two programs.
The road to the title game: Lake Zurich, a fourth seed, beat No. 13 Wheeling 30-15, No. 5 Rolling Meadows 10-7, No. 1 Rockford Boylan 28-17 and No. 7 Carmel 17-7. Top-seeded WW South beat No. 8 St. Laurence 41-0, No. 4 St. Rita 26-22, No. 2 Morgan Park 24-0 and No. 3 East St. Louis 26-0.
The coaches: Lake Zurich's Bryan Stortz has a 24-3 record in his second year at the helm. In his sixth year WW South's Ron Muhitch owns a 61-13 record.
Lake Zurich's offense (367.2 yards, 31 points per game) vs.
WW South's defense (253.8 yards, 10.6 points allowed per game): With the Bears' deceptive option offense, expect to see a bunch of different runners getting into the act. Janus leads the ground game with 1,034 yards and 10 touchdowns, but Kalcsics and Simpson have combined for nearly 1,500 rushing yards and 19 touchdowns. Amazingly balanced, all three backs have between 126 and 135 carries. Don't expect a lot of passing from the Bears. DeLeo has thrown for 1,274 yards and 8 touchdowns, but he didn't complete a pass in last week's win over Carmel, which also didn't complete a pass. Becker and Gage return to the line as starters to a unit averaging 215 pounds. WW South's defense pretty much has seen it all this postseason -- from the power of St. Rita to the explosiveness of Morgan Park and East St. Louis. With Lake Zurich the Tigers will see a smaller but much quicker line. Traynor starts it all up front, leading the team with 9 sacks. LaBelle and Burke, the lone returning defensive starters, have combined for 130 tackles. The secondary, a quietly successful group, has seen its interceptions spike to 14. Overall team speed and quickness is strong with the Tigers, especially on defense. Option football was the name of the game for years with the Tigers -- look for them to lean on the past to figure out Lake Zurich's schemes. "There's so much pride on our team," Traynor said. "We've all worked so hard to get to this point."
WW South's offense (302.8 yards, 30 points per game) vs.
Lake Zurich's defense (174.7 yards, 7.8 points allowed per game): For what Piatkowski lacks in size, he more than makes up for with moxie. The clear leader of the offense has completed 62 percent of his passes for 1,998 yards and 22 touchdowns against only 5 interceptions. His main targets are Schweighardt and Sloboda, who have combined for 88 catches and over 1,200 yards. Keep an eye on Perry, a dangerous 6-foot-6 presence cruising across the middle. Piatkowski is well-protected by bookend tackles Matte, committed to Indiana, and Williams. "This is a huge accomplishment for us," Piatkowski said. "Not many people expected us to get down there again, but we did it." The ground game suffered a setback when Francis Adarkwa, who leads the team with 866 rushing yards, went down with a knee injury in the playoff opener. He's set to return this weekend, although it's uncertain how much he'll play with little practice time. Jarrett has stepped up admirably during Adarkwa's absence. The bulk of his 704 yards and 10 touchdowns have come in the postseason against teams that thrive against the run -- teams like Lake Zurich, which has allowed only 50 rushing yards per game. Five starters return to the speedy unit that plays a 3-5-3 formation. LaFontaine and Marks lead the team with 157 combined tackles. Brewer anchors the line with 13 tackles for loss. Johnson and Dietrich are returning secondary starters.
Intangibles: Key injuries have hit WW South's lineup in the playoffs, Adarkwa's hampering the offense and defensive lineman Rahil Shermohamed's striking that side of the ball. Jarrett and Schuman, however, have shown just how deep the Tigers are. Conroy is a difference-maker in the kicking game. Touchbacks are a given. He's hit 8 field goals with a range of more than 40 yards and he's averaging better than 40 yards on punts. Muhitch believes in many ways these teams are mirror images of each other. That means turnovers could spell the difference. WW South has switched on the turnover machine in the postseason, vaulting its ratio to a plus-24 the past few games. Lake Zurich is a plus-14. One striking difference comes in the offensive balance between the pass and run. While fewer than 100 yards separate WW South's rushing total from its passing total, Lake Zurich's ground game has outgained the pass by a margin of 3,474-1,299 yards.