Boys lacrosse: Lakes shows how far its come with win over Warren
In the case of the Lakes boys lacrosse team, there's a lot to be said about putting on that jersey, which used to read District 117 co-op.
"There's a lot of pride for these guys wearing a jersey that just says Lakes," said Eagles head coach Jacob Perry, who played under current Warren coach Greg Janczak.
"They have a lot of fight in them and have something to prove."
Until this year, Lakes and Antioch formed a District 117 co-op team. Now both schools have over 50 players on their respective teams.
And interestingly enough, Lakes traveled to Gurnee on Friday evening for a nonconference tilt against the highly-regarded Blue Devils, who lost in the sectional finals last year to New Trier.
Lakes' pride grew even more on Friday when the Eagles beat Warren 6-5.
You'd have thought they won the state championship.
"It's been a long time coming. We lost to them (Warren) 18-4 last year, so this feels amazing," said senior midfielder Nate Langille, who popped in 2 goals on the night.
"The key tonight was patience. Warren has such a high-powered offense. We just grinded it out."
Warren excited the home crowd by scoring first when junior defender Luc Landry dished one off to junior middie Logan Haar at the 9:02 mark of the first period.
Lakes answered right back when Langille lost the ball but regained it right in front of the goal for a score to knot things up 1-1.
Warren then took a 2-1 lead in the second after senior attacker Nate Crawford rebounded in a missed shot for a 2-1 Devils lead.
Lakes evened things up before halftime when Langille fed brother and sophomore attacker Cooper for the equalizer with 4:45 left in the half.
Most of the fireworks came in the third quarter when Lakes outscored the Devils 3-2 for a 5-4 lead after three stanzas.
The Eagles actually went ahead 4-2 after goals by Nate Langille and junior midfielder Mac Ryan.
Warren then answered and appeared to be getting its bearings.
"We tried and tried and had chances," said Janczak, whose Devils fell to 14-3.
"We played hard but just didn't have the will to win tonight."
Crawford scored again and freshman defender Ryan Landry dished off to McCarthy to draw even 4-4.
Lakes (10-4) took the lead for good when Ryan scored unassisted for a 5-4 advantage.
Not even a minute into the fourth, Lakes senior defender Aidan Hood raced about 75 yards only to flip one past Warren senior keeper Evan Leden (7 saves).
Warren scored its final goal at the 10:08 mark of the fourth when junior attacker Charlie Herrick blasted one past Lakes senior keeper Matt Halperin (12 saves).
"We've been playing together for a while but everyone looks past us because we're technically a first-year program," added Nate Langille. "Hopefully they won't now."