Passing fancy: Stevenson grounds Lake Zurich
Time for a pop quiz.
At run-oriented Stevenson, who is the all-time leader in passing yards for a single season?
Toughie, right?
Wait a second, we've got taker, someone who knows the answer right away.
"Yeah, it's my brother," Kevin Earl said of his older sibling, Preston. "He had 2,000 yards."
Well, 1,999 (in 2005) to be exact, but who's counting?
Unless maybe Kevin is. After all, he is super tight with his brother, who graduated from Stevenson in 2006 with 4,506 career passing yards, but he also wouldn't mind breaking some of his records either.
"If it comes down to that, sure, that would be great," Kevin Earl said. "But I'd rather get the wins."
Earl got a big win on Friday night, leading the Patriots to a definitive 39-21 North Suburban Conference Lake Division victory over visiting Lake Zurich.
In the process, Earl also put a nice dent in that 1,999-yard benchmark. He completed 8-of-11 passes for 216 yards and hooked up with Nate Johnson for 2 beautiful touchdown passes.
The first connection between Earl and Johnson - a 37-yarder - came five minutes into the game but wasn't even Stevenson's first touchdown.
The Patriots, who stay perfect at 5-0 (3-0 Lake), scored 3 touchdowns in the first 10 minutes and took a commanding 20-0 lead into the second quarter.
Earl was 3-for-4 for 136 yards in the first quarter alone.
"I owe so much to (Preston)," beamed little brother Kevin, who says that Preston is now a quarterback with two years of eligibility left at Division III Hobart College in New York. "He's helped me out a lot, molded me into what I am now. He's like my personal coach. He boosts me up a lot."
A scary good offensive line and a dangerous running attack also gives Earl a lift.
Just last week against Lake Forest, Stevenson rolled up 305 rushing yards, thanks to a personal record 275 yards on 46 carries by Mark Weisman. Don't think the Bears weren't thinking about that as they lined up on defense.
"If they expect the run, we want to pass, if they expect the pass, we want to run," said Johnson, who finished with 127 receiving yards on 4 receptions. "Last week, Mark was phenomenal and I think (Lake Zurich) was game-planning for that. And we wanted to exploit that.
"All summer Kevin and I worked on our timing and our patterns and he does a great job. He's real accurate and he always reads the field real well."
Earl, who guided Stevenson to a 32-14 halftime lead, switched gears in the second half, attempting just one pass, a 14-yard completion to Brett Kraiman (4 catches 89 yards). His main job was to hand off to Weisman and Matt Harris, who helped the Patriots salt away the game with one long drive after another.
Stevenson's opening drive of the third quarter went 19 plays and chewed up nearly 10 minutes before Harris (20 carries, 120 yards) scored on a 1-yard run that pushed the lead to 39-14 with 2:23 left in the third quarter.
Lake Zurich (2-3) finally got the ball and had a nice drive going, but eventually turned it back over to Stevenson on an interception by quarterback Peter Rantis. It was one of many takeaways by the Stevenson defense.
Lake Zurich turned the ball over five times on the night - 3 interceptions and 2 lost fumbles.
"You won't win any games turning the ball over," said Lake Zurich coach Bryan Stortz, who got a team-high 99 rushing yards (on 18 carries) out of Jacob Brinlee. "There were times when we felt like we were on the push, and then we go and blow our toes off. We can't do that. We've got to get a lot better."