Vernon Hills has all the answers to beat Round Lake

Round Lake's public address announcer was having fun playing trivia with Saturday's homecoming crowd, while the football team wasn't having nearly as much fun playing Vernon Hills.

Did you know that Round Lake graduate Tim Unroe played for the Milwaukee Brewers? Or that Mike and Sara Hruska are the high school's only husband/wife teaching duo?

How about some North Suburban Prairie football trivia?

Which team won the division in 2005 and came oh-so close to capturing the championship last year?

Kudos if you said Vernon Hills, which thanks to its 42-0 rout of Round Lake, coupled with Grant's 27-21 upset of defending division champ Antioch on Saturday, sits alone atop the NSC Prairie standings at 3-0.

Vernon Hills (4-1 overall), which got 3 touchdown passes from sophomore quarterback Steve Nelson, visits Antioch next Friday. The Sequoits won last season's meeting, 38-35, rallying from a 21-0 deficit.

While Vernon Hills could have understandably been looking past Round Lake (0-5, 0-3), junior outside linebacker Austin Miller dismissed that notion, even though the Cougars and Panthers were scoreless after one quarter.

"Not really looking ahead," said Miller, who scored on a fumble return, and also notched a sack and tackle for loss. "We focused on Round Lake, but Antioch is going to be a good game. Can't wait to play them."

Vernon Hills started slowly against Round Lake, with Panthers quarterback Anthony Gutierrez completing a 13-yard pass to Joey Beres on the game's first play from scrimmage.

Defensively for Round Lake, Bernard Husk was in on a pair of sacks in the first quarter. The Panthers stacked the line of scrimmage and had success stopping the Cougars' running game.

"When they put nine in the box, they have to give up something," Cougars coach Tony Monken said. "I think we probably tried to force it a little bit early, trying to get the running game going."

Vernon Hills finally got going when starting at the Round Lake 48 after a downed punt. Nelson threw a bomb down the right sideline to DaVaris Daniels, who made the catch and strolled into the end zone.

The Cougars went back to the same play on their next series, only this time Nelson hit Zach Kisley down the same sideline. The 67-yard strike put the visitors up 14-0.

Nelson's third TD pass was a 10-yarder to Evan Spencer, capping a 6-play drive that included a 38-yard burst from Daniels.

Nelson finished the game 6-of-7 passing for 147 yards. He credited offensive linemen Michael Donofrio, Art Royzengurt, E.J. Lannan, Chris Morgan and Alexander Guletsky for their pass protection on the 3 TD throws.

"Those first two series we tried to run it a lot, but (Round Lake) had eight or nine guys in the box so that really opened the passing game for us," Nelson said. "The receivers did a great job, and of course I couldn't do it without the line upfront."

Late in the half, out of the shotgun, Round Lake snapped the ball over the head of Gutierrez. Miller scooped up the ball and returned 14 yards for the score, making it 28-0.

"I just saw that it was a missed snap and thought I'd take advantage of the opportunity," Miller said. "I tried my best and got the ball on a lucky bounce, and took it in."

In the second half, the Cougars got touchdown runs from Eric Oberwise (64 yards) and Thomas Turner (2 yards). Turner's TD in the final minute of the third commenced a running clock.

"Saturday football has a different feel to it, and when you don't play it on a regular basis, it doesn't have that same excitement," Monken said. "I think we came out a little flat. But we got the job done."