Crystal Lake South keeps on rolling
Crystal Lake South has played its entire season with the moniker of being a second-half team.
The Gators needed every bit of their second half performance against Lake Forest on Saturday.
Trailing the Scouts 14-3 early in the third quarter, No. 1 seed South outscored Lake Forest 25-3 to take a 28-17 victory over the eighth-seeded Lake Forest (7-4) at Ken Bruhn Field in the second round of the IHSA Class 6A football playoffs.
South (11-0) will now face cross-town rival Prairie Ridge (10-1), which defeated Chicago Morgan Park 20-6 Saturday. The Gators, who will host the quarterfinal game, handed Prairie Ridge its lone loss of the season, a 24-20 defeat, in Week 4.
"In the first half we were moving the ball, but we didn't get any points out of it," Gators' coach Chuck Ahsmann said of Saturday's win. "(Quarterback) Drew (Ormseth) started off cold in the first half (but) he came up big with a couple of picks in the second half."
Ormseth finished the second half with a pair of interceptions on defense, but also ran for 3 touchdowns in the final 12 minutes, 13 seconds of the game.
He sealed Lake Forest's season with a 1-yard scoring run with 1:15 left in the game to extend South's lead to 28-17, making it a 2-score game.
Ormseth finished the game with 68 of his 106 yards in the second half and led the Gators on 3 scoring drives in the fourth quarter.
"The offensive coordinator was probably going nuts in the press box," said Ormseth after the Gators managed just 3 points for the majority of the game. "We changed up out blocking schemes (at halftime). I had a lot more time and my linemen ate people up."
Bolek Mikulec caught a big hole and ran in from 5 yards out for a touchdown to give South back the lead at 21-17 with 2:36 remaining. The Gators failed to convert the 2-point conversion, but were able to hold off Lake Forest's next drive thanks in large part to a Kean Lopee sack on second down.
"The guys on the team trust me and I trust in the line," said Mikulec, who finished with 117 yards on 26 carries. "I have a lot of confidence in the defense and they came up big with 5 interceptions."
South trailed 14-3 until Ormseth dashed in from 15 yards out with 13 seconds left in the third quarter. A failed kick on the extra point left the Gators trailing 14-9.
Lopee picked off Jordan Beck on the next play from scrimmage setting up the Gators on the Scouts' 34-yard line. Ormseth ran the ball in from a yard out 4 plays later giving South a 15-14 lead, which was the first lead since Lake Forest (7-4) scored 59 seconds before halftime.
Ormseth could not complete a pass on the point after, which allowed Scouts' kicker Samuel Moran to put Lake Forest back up 17-15 when he connected on a 28-yard field goal with 6:57 left to play.
Ormseth and Kenny King each picked off Lake Forest's quarterbacking duo twice, but Ahsmann was more concerned about stopping running back H. Owen Williams. Despite a 4-minute stretch in the third quarter when Williams ran for 74 yards and a touchdown to put the Scouts up 14-3 with 10:03 left in the third quarter, Williams was held in check. He finished with 112 yards, but just 6 in the first half.
Lake Forest went up 7-3 with just 59 seconds left in the first half on a Jordan Beck 7-yard pass to Jacob Hellinga. Beck finished 7 of 13 with 88 yards and 2 picks, while Paul Carollo was 9 of 19 for 93 yards with 3 interceptions.
"We wanted to stop (Williams)," Ahsmann said. "We knew we'd give up some yards passing the ball, but we really wanted to stop him."
After a scoreless first quarter, South was finally able to put points on the board with a 42-yard field goal from Brad Walovitch with 5:33 left in the first half. Walovitch had missed a 50-yard attempt earlier in the game.