Woodstock tops Lakes
After finishing his interviews with reporters on Saturday night, Woodstock quarterback Logan Kunzie looked around Polley Field at Lakes High School and realized that no one else from his team was around.
Every single one of his teammates, and even his coaches had loaded up on the buses and were waiting for him.
Kunzie immediately broke into a jog and headed for the parking lot.
On his way out, a Lakes player called out to him, "Where are you going to college?"
"I don't know yet," Kunzie replied without breaking his stride.
Yet is the key word here.
The prolific Kunzie, who has passed for 30 touchdowns and nearly 2,500 yards this season, says he's already getting plenty of serious looks from Division III programs.
One would think he'll see his options widen if he continues to play like he did against Lakes.
After a bit of a shaky first quarter, Kunzie was nearly unstoppable in leading No. 7 Woodstock to a definitive 42-17 victory over No. 15 Lakes in Class 5A playoff action. He completed an impressive 25-of-33 passes for 278 yards and 3 touchdowns.
The win moves the Blue Streaks to 8-3 overall and into a quarterfinal matchup with No. 3 Glenbard South, which was a 33-27 winner over Vernon Hills.
Meanwhile, Lakes, which was hosting its very first playoff game in school history, closes out its season at 6-5.
"Their quarterback threw everything on target," Lakes defensive end Brandon Mruk said of Kunzie. "We were trying to get pressure on him but he has a really good arm and we had trouble covering him."
Well, not for the entire game.
The Eagles actually seemed to have Kunzie rattled early on. With 2:32 left in the first quarter, linebacker Will Massie sacked Kunzie with such force that the ball popped loose and bounced right into Mruk's hands.
Mruk then sprinted 35 yards for a touchdown to give Lakes a 7-0 lead.
"I grabbed the ball and I thought it was going to be blown dead and I saw the ref start running with me," Mruk said. "I started running as fast as I've ever run in my life. That was the biggest dream, the biggest play of my life to be able to score that touchdown and hear everyone cheer. As a defensive end, it's not likely that you'll have a lot of plays like that."
The big plays kept coming for the Lakes defense, which struck again on the very next play.
When Woodstock got the ball back, Lakes forced a fumble on a run by Mike Liedtke and Massie dove on the ball at the Woodstock 15-yard line.
The Eagles took just three plays and 1:20 to reach the end zone again. A 6-yard run by Andrew Tubek (20 carries, 95 yards) gave Lakes a 14-0 lead with 1:02 left in the first quarter.
"We came out so strong," Massie said. "We felt pretty good. We wanted to keep our foot of their throat but we let it slip away."
Woodstock got back into the game with a pair of second quarter touchdown passes from Kunzie to Mike Kremske (6 catches 112 yards), including a beautiful 54-yarder. But Lakes held a 17-14 halftime lead thanks to a 34-yard field goal by Mike Beckman.
"I don't know what happened after halftime," Massie said. "Their halftime adjustments must have been better than ours."
Woodstock dominated the second half as Kunzie misfired on just three of his 16 attempts after the break. Liedtke also gave the Blue Streaks' ground game some life. He rushed for back-to-back touchdowns in the third quarter to give Woodstock a 28-17 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Liedtke finished with 117 yards on 14 carries.
"There was a little bit of panic (early in the game)," Kunzie said. "I started out a little slow. I was a little shaky, maybe a little nervous. But we went into shotgun in the second quarter and that seemed to help a lot.
"Shotgun is my thing, I guess. That worked for us and I was able to get the ball to my receivers."