Lake Zurich bounces back
Playing defense has become a tradition at Lake Zurich, and senior Andy Blechschmidt knows just what that tradition is all about.
"It's about making a play - making big plays," Blechschimdt said. "That's what we talk about every week in practice, making big plays every time we step on the field."
Friday night in the Bears' home opener against DuPage Valley Conference power Wheaton North, Blechschmidt and the defense didn't make the big plays time and time again. But it was the big stops on third and fourth down that proved to be the difference in an impressive 35-9 win for Lake Zurich.
"(Last week against Fremd) we didn't do a very good job getting off the field on third down," Blechschmidt said. "Tonight we worked really hard on third down."
The task this week wasn't any easier for Blechschmidt and the defense. All they had to do was somehow slow down Falcon quarterback and Ohio State-bound senior Taylor Graham.
By disguising their defenses and forcing Graham to be uncomfortable most of the night, the Bears' defense held Graham and the Falcons to just 3 field goals and only 122 yards through the air.
"Lake Zurich is very good in the stack defense that they run," said Wheaton North coach Joe Wardynski. "They did some things in coverage, but I thought we had some chances that we didn't take advantage of."
The Falcons' first chance came on the fourth play of the game when junior Montrell Williams recovered a Lake Zurich fumble at the Bears 37. After getting down to the LZ 9-yard line, the drive ended with a 27-yard Steve Jones field goal.
Lake Zurich (1-1)took all of 15 seconds to respond. Junior Jacob Brinlee zipped through the Falcons' kick coverage for a 98-yard return and Lake Zurich had the lead for good at 7-3. Brinlee was a workhorse totaling 96 yards rushing and nearly 300 all-purpose yards.
"It's funny, but this game started for us just like last week did," Lake Zurich coach Bryan Stortz. "Tonight the kids kept playing hard and made some plays and we eliminated a lot of our mistakes."
The Bears' offense wasn't on the field much throughout the contest, but when they were, they took full advantage of their opportunities.
On the first play of the second quarter, senior Devian Ruiz capped a 7-play, 72-yard drive with the first of his three scores giving the Bears a 14-3 cushion.
"Devian is the heart and soul of our team," Stortz said. "He is a hard-nosed kid. Then you have to deal with the speed of Brinlee."
Brinlee added his second score of the night on the Bears first possession of the second half. His two yard run after a 44-yard burst gave LZ an insurmountable cushion at 21-9.
Defensively, the Bears shut down and shut out the Wheaton North (1-1) in the second half. The Falcons had just two sustained drives in the third quarter but never crossed the Lake Zurich 20.
"We have got to get back to work and play four quarters of football," Wardynski said. "Tonight we played only 2."