Lake Zurich passes up Simeon barely

Keep driving and you eventually get to Gately Stadium on Chicago's far, far, far south side.

Keep driving and you eventually get to Simeon, the football team that plays its home games on the old artificial turf there.

You get Simeon off its game, which is high-octane, pedal-to-the-medal, full-speed down the Bishop Ford (left lane, please).

Lake Zurich kept driving the football Saturday night, avoided what would have been an all-time horrible wreck at the end and escaped with a 17-14 win in a Class 7A state quarterfinal.

"We just didn't execute," said Simeon coach Dante Culbreath, whose pass-happy team wasn't helped by a cold wind. "I don't think it was anything that (Lake Zurich) was doing (defensively)."

Lake Zurich's defense was stout, especially against a Wolverines team that was averaging 51 points per game. The effort kept the Bears moving on their playoff path, as Lake Zurich (11-1) will play a semifinal game for the fourth time in five years when it hosts St. Rita, a 21-0 winner over Carmel Catholic, next weekend.

The Bears already know what their point of emphasis will be.

"It's just like Coach said (after the game)," quarterback/defensive back Zach Till said of head coach Bryan Stortz. "The theme is going to be, 'Finish.' We got to get better at that."

For most of the night against Simeon (11-1), Lake Zurich played the exact kind of game it planned on, which was "control the clock and keep (Simeon) off the field," running back John Mularz said. Lake Zurich led 17-0 after Scott Walding ended the third quarter with a 24-yard field.

But Simeon, which hadn't scored fewer than 42 points in any game this season, finally got going offensively after an 11-yard punt gave the Wolverines the ball at the Lake Zurich 30.

On the next snap, Robert Gregory, Simeon's prolific 6-foot-4 junior quarterback, hit Darius Scott over the middle for a touchdown with 8:13 left.

Lake Zurich responded with a seven-play drive, but fumbled the snap out of punt formation, and Simeon had the ball at the Bears 41.

Gregory (9 of 13, 129 yards) hit Demarius Reed for 8 yards and then delivered a 33-yard TD strike down the left sideline to Scott. Horatio Banks' conversion run had the Wolverines within 17-14 with 2:59 to go.

"We had the wind at our back so we could throw the ball a little," Culbreath said.

"They made two big plays on offense," Till said. "Our defense played great."

Simeon's offense never touched the ball after its second touchdown. The Bears ate up the remaining time thanks to Jacob Brinlee's 8-yard gain on third-and-3 from the Lake Zurich 42 and Mularz's equally clutch, 11-yard pickup on third-and-10 from the 50 with less than a minute left.

"I just knew I had to get to the outside," said Mularz, who led a balanced running attack with 111 yards on 21 carries. "My guy, Tim Sayre, sprung me to get that first down."

Lake Zurich had the ball for 34 minutes, 6 seconds compared to Simeon's 13 minutes, 54 seconds time of possession.

Sayre added 80 rushing yards on just 9 carries for the Bears, while Simeon limited Brinlee to 76 yards on 22 carries.

Lake Zurich's defense held Simeon to 150 yards of total offense. The Bears got big plays from, among others, J.J. Raffelson (tackle for loss), William Hussey (sack, 2 tackles for loss), Jack Lynn (tackle for loss) and Chris Rantis (interception). Kiah McGee blocked a third-quarter punt that led to Brinlee's 1-yard TD run.

In the end, the offense's ability to get the ball moving allowed the defense to rest.

"I guess we like to make things exciting," Stortz said.

"(Simeon) runs very effective schemes. You have to be disciplined when playing gap-pursuit football."