Wauconda bullies Lakes
Behind a strong-armed quarterback who's been getting better and better, Wauconda looked like a playoff-bound football team for the third week in a row.
The Bulldogs' season is over, however. Instead, the team they pounded 41-12 on a muddy track Friday night - Lakes - could be headed to the postseason for the second time in its five years as a program, despite its shaky effort at Wauconda.
While Wauconda (4-5, 3-3 North Suburban Prairie) finished a win shy of being playoff-eligible, despite winning its last two games and nearly upsetting NSC Prairie champ Vernon Hills in Week 7, Lakes (5-4, 4-2) figures to have a good chance of earning an at-large berth into the state tournament.
Heading into Friday, the Eagles had 35 playoff points (opponents' wins) and were guaranteed at least two more. The playoff point cutoff the last two years has been 36.
"We should be all right," Lakes coach Luke Mertens said. "But either way, it doesn't matter. Tonight was the problem."
Specifically, Wauconda quarterback Brian Kent presented Lakes its biggest problem. Operating out of the Bulldogs' spread offense, the athletic 6-foot-1 junior threw for 243 yards (13-of-23 passing) and 2 touchdowns and rushed for 115 yards and 3 TDs.
"Our mind set was, we wanted to do it for our seniors," Kent said. "They led us all year. We just wanted to win this last one and get them out on the right note."
Lakes looked out of sort from the get-go, needing to call a defensive timeout before the game's first snap. Wauconda drove nearly the length of the field, but fumbled away the ball inside the Lakes 10. On the Eagles' first play, however, they fumbled away the ball right back, with the Bulldogs' Josh Fugle recovering.
On the night, Lakes fumbled seven times and had trouble all game snapping the ball on punt attempts.
"Tonight was definitely a needed win," said quarterback Nick Hibbing, who accounted for both Lakes' touchdowns with passes to Ryan Noon (8 yards) and Tyler Swindle (18 yards). "We weren't looking ahead to anything. We were looking at this game. We knew coming in this would be a dogfight and that they've gotten better as the year went on - so have we. We didn't underestimate them. It just kind of went downhill."
One-yard TD runs by Kent and Lucas Schlueter and a 40-yard touchdown pass from Kent to John Kass (3 catches, 101 yards) had Wauconda up 20-0 midway through the second quarter.
"We told our kids all along that Lakes is a playoff team and let's find out where we're really at by going against a playoff team," Bulldogs coach Dave Mills said. "Our seniors took the challenge. Our 22 seniors wanted to finish up right, and they did."
Kent raced into the end zone from 25 yards out on a draw, putting Wauconda up 27-6 at halftime.
In the second half, Kent fired a 15-yard TD strike to Jake Ziolkowski - after a James Tagorda interception - and busted off a 62-yard scoring run.
"The O-line gave me holes," Kent said. "I just ran. There wasn't much to it."