Ruiz, Lake Zurich wash away Mundelein

Streaks of lampblack were smeared down and across Devian Ruiz's filthy face and mud nearly completely concealed the No. 29 on the front of his white football jersey.

Lake Zurich's 25-7 win at muddy Mundelein on Friday night wasn't much prettier. But don't go wipe that smile off Ruiz's face.

"I just feel bad for my mom that she has to wash my stuff," Ruiz said.

The senior fullback had earned his smile, and his team was grateful for his effort on the field after he rushed 24 times for 144 yards - both career bests. He also scored a touchdown.

With its second straight win, albeit not as electrifying as its upset of previously unbeaten Warren the previous week, Lake Zurich improved to 4-3 overall and 3-2 in the North Suburban Lake.

Mundelein fell to 1-6 and 0-4.

"They played hard," Ruiz said. "You can't say they didn't. We couldn't get a lot of footing and made some little mistakes. We came into this game not too focused, unfortunately, but we pulled it together and came out with the win. That's all that matters."

Mundelein, which trailed only 18-7 at halftime and played Lake Zurich to a scoreless tie in the third quarter, was determined to not to let dangerous wingback Jacob Brinlee use his speed to the outside. While the junior finished with 106 rushing yards on 10 carries, he had only a pair of long runs (26 and 59 yards).

"(Mundelein) certainly wanted to take away our perimeter game, and the conditions didn't help that at all," Lake Zurich coach Bryan Stortz said. "Our counter to that was we needed to work in between the tackles, and upfront our guys did a great job. And Devian, he's a hard-nosed kid."

Brinlee, who rushed for a career-best 216 yards and 3 touchdowns against Warren, scored on TD runs of 3 and 9 yards to give Lake Zurich a 12-0 lead after one quarter.

"Brinlee's been getting the carries and he's a real good kid, so (Mundelein) focused on him a lot and that just gave me an opportunity," Ruiz said. "It's nice having someone that fast and that good, because he's kind of a decoy for me."

While Mundelein had negative-9 yards rushing on 11 attempts in the first half, the Mustangs got a big play from quarterback Joe DeJesus, who split time with starter Brian Santiago, and wide receiver Brian Grant. They hooked up on a 59-yard scoring play with 5:04 left before halftime, cutting the Mustangs' deficit in half.

"It was just a post," Grant said. "In practice, me and Joe also hook up on that route for a touchdown.

"I saw the kid coming (after making the catch) and I stiff-armed him and then just ran to the end zone."

It was just the second passing TD all season for the Mustangs. The first one came the previous week against Lake Forest, with DeJesus and Grant connecting as well.

DeJesus finished 5-of-13 passing for 129 yards.

"He's coming through for us," said Grant, who caught 3 passes, all from DeJesus. "He's proving himself worthy."

Mundelein was still in the game until Lake Zurich manufactured a clock-eating, 13-play, 95-yard drive that was capped with Peter Rantis' 5-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Lewandowski with 2:51 left in the fourth.

"We didn't put them away," Stortz said. "We let them hang around, and that's something we really need to work on."