Vernon Hills: Still perfect

Week by week, game by game, Vernon Hills appears to be headed into a direction it has never gone before: undefeated.

The Cougars, easily off to their best start in program history, picked up win No. 5 on Friday night, getting past host Lakes 39-17 in a North Suburban Prairie division football game in Lake Villa.

Vernon Hills (5-0, 3-0), however, had a scare, trailing 10-0 at the half. The Cougars answered the second-half bell by scoring 33 unanswered points.

Cougars sophomore sensation DaVaris Daniels caught 2 touchdown passes (51 and 65 yards) and intercepted 2 passes. Ernie Choi (13 carries, 133 yards) scampered for a couple of touchdown runs. Sebastian Evans 12 carris, 94 yards) had 30 yards rushing, picked off a pass and recovered a fumble. And quarterback PJ Marsek (9 of 13 for 186 yards) scored on a 21-yard rushing TD.

"It's a challenge with high school kids being 15, 16, 17 and 18 years old," said Vernon Hills coach Tony Monken of the great start. "It's hard to remember, every week you've got to be up for your next opponent. When you're undefeated, you're going to get everybody's best game. Lakes came out and gave us a great fight."

Vernon Hills turned the game around early in the third quarter, still down 10-0. Lakes (1-4, 0-4) attempted a fourth-and-2 from its own 38. But the Cougars stepped up to the challenge and gave the Eagles a 3-yard loss and took the ball on the Lakes 35-yard line.

"It was a huge momentum shift," Monken said. "Our defense set the whole thing up. They came out much more aggressive in the second half. First half we were reading and not necessarily attacking."

Evans followed up on the first play and scored on a 30-yard run which cut the lead to 10-6 with 10:20 remaining in the third quarter.

"Our line did a heck of a job blocking," Evans said. "It was a simple trap play. Our line was dominating and receivers were blocking down field."

Daniels put Vernon Hills up for good 13-10 with 7:08 left third quarter. Daniels caught a pass for 51 yards.

"We did a great job and have played through a lot of adversity this year," Lakes coach Luke Mertens said.