CN100 Game of the Week preview: Football - Lake Park vs. Bartlett
Week 6: Lake Park Lancers vs. Bartlett Hawks
STREAMWOOD – Anytime a football program has a special player, it's only natural to ride that player as often as possible.
For Bartlett's football team, when quarterback Steve Hrbacek was knocked out for the season on the fourth play of a season-opening loss to Wheaton North, that put the focus even more on running back Aaron Everson.
Everson has picked up the vast majority of yardage and done most of scoring for the 3-2 Hawks, which host 2-3 Lake Park Saturday in Upstate Eight Valley play. The game will be shown on CN100, The Comcast Network, at Noon and 4 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 30, and 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 2. You can also find the game throughout Chicagoland with Xfinity On Demand.
“(Everson) has 17 touchdowns now (16 rushing),” Bartlett coach Tom Meaney said. “As he goes, our offense goes, but we know we have to throw the ball. We lost our quarterback early … so that set us back offensively. But Aaron is a heck of a ball carrier, he works real hard. He's paid the price. He did a lot in the off-season.”
Everson has rushed for a staggering 958 yards and 16 touchdowns already this season. To put that in perspective, the Hawks have thrown for only 213 total yards and rushed for 1,200 as a team.
Aside from a lopsided loss to Wheaton North in the opener, Bartlett has played well defensively. The Hawks allowed seven total points to East Aurora and Elgin, beat Metea Valley 47-27 and held high-powered Waubonsie Valley to 19 points in a loss last week.
This week, they will be tested through the air by an athletic Lake Park team that finished 5-4 last year but did not have enough playoff points to reach the postseason for the first time since 2009.
Quarterback Zack Gehant has thrown for 1,024 yards and 16 touchdowns with only two interceptions so far. His main target has been Kevin Teglia (30 catches, 600 yards, 11 touchdowns). Scott Filip has emerged of late as defenses have targeted Teglia, picking up 15 catches for 241 yards and four TDs.
“Lake Park has a lot of speed,” Meaney said. “We're real impressed with Teglia, he's quite a weapon. They get a lot of yards after the catch. Their quarterback, if you give him time to throw, he can do some damage. Their running back (Curtwan Evans, who has rushed for 332 yards and two scores) is good too. Their quickness is a lot like Waubonsie. Hopefully we can match up, but they do have some weapons.”
Lake Park coach Chris Roll was in his first season as the head coach of his alma mater last year, and he recalls the impression Bartlett made on him.
“Bartlett is always a measuring stick for us as a team,” Roll said. “They are usually the most physical team we play. Last year, they jumped on us quickly and beat us on homecoming. After that game, we established what we needed to do to improve and won our last four games. Since then we have been looking forward to a rematch this year.”
Lake Park has been affected by the Ryder Cup, which is going on across the street from its east campus at Medinah. Because of the 40,000 expected spectators arriving every day, school was closed down for the week.
“I spent the week trying to have the players feel as normal as possible without classes,” Roll said. “It was quite a different week.”
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- Paul Johnson, CN100 Correspondent
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