Lakes 26, Round Lake 19

Lakes' offensive linemen might not have realized just how accurate their prediction would wind up being.

"The linemen were pumped up," running back Josh Gaido said after he and Brent Gruber led a ground attack that powered the Eagles to a 26-19 win over visiting Round Lake in the teams' season finale Friday night in Lake Villa.

"All the linemen were just telling me all day, 'This is your game. This is going to be Brent's game. This is going to be the running backs' game.' "

It would be Ray Bryant's game, too.

All Round Lake's star running back did was rush 41 times for 290 yards and 2 touchdowns. The speedy 5-foot-11, 170-pound senior entered the game having gained 1,133 yards on the ground.

"He's a good player. There's no doubt about it," said Lakes coach Luke Mertens, whose team finished 3-6, including 2-4 in the North Suburban Prairie Division.

"He's a good running back and even better in person than he is on film."

While the indefatigable Bryant kept Round Lake (1-8, 0-6) in the game running behind Brandon Cartwright, John Narvasa, Vince Nicoline, Alex Carrillo, Shane Maurer and tight end Robert Rosenkranz, Lakes used a more balanced rushing attack.

Gaido led the way, rushing 17 times for 125 yards. The junior scored on runs of 8, 13 and 10 yards, and also ran for a conversion.

Gruber gained 90 yards on 12 carries, while rifle-armed quarterback Randy Ratajczyk added 44 rushing yards. As a unit, the Eagles piled up 267 yards on the ground.

Alex Hawkins, Hiram Brizuela, Richard Hayes, Tim Gehrke and Erik Stone made the blocks up front -- in addition to correctly predicting the running game's success.

"We've always wanted to go over 200 yards rushing because it's something we hadn't done this season," Gaido said. "This was a good way to end it for the whole entire team. The seniors go out winners, and everybody's happy."

Not that it was easy.

While Lakes never trailed, the Panthers pulled within 20-19 on Cameron Gillespie's 4-yard TD run late in the third quarter.

Gaido's third touchdown made it 26-19 with 8:10 left, but Round Lake hung tough, despite Lakes eating up five minutes on the game clock late.

The Panthers got the ball back at their own 36 with 55 seconds left. They got to the Lakes 22, but the Eagles' Marcus Williams broke up a pass with .4 seconds left and Nick Thackston's second interception of the night sealed the win.

"It hasn't been (easy) all year, so it's kind of fitting we went out that way," said Mertens, whose team also got an 11-yard TD run from Alex Calle.

"But we went out winners and that's the important thing."

"It was real frustrating," Bryant said, "because we had a chance to win but just came up short."

"It was a heck of an effort," Panthers coach Doug Moss said. "The kids fought all the way to the end. Ray had another great night."