Boys lacrosse: St. Viator roars to second straight sectional title win over Lake Zurich

Keaton Franzen and Charlie Drake along with their St. Viator teammates blitzed Lake Zurich Friday.

Franzen and Drake scored during a less than a minute long, three-goal barrage by the Lions. That enabled Viator to pull away for a 15-7 win in the boys lacrosse sectional finals at Glenbrook North.

It was second year in a row St. Viator (21-2) posted a sectional final win over Lake Zurich.

The Lions will now meet two-time defending state champion Lake Forest in Tuesday’s supersectional at Lake Forest Tuesday at 7 p.m. Lake Forest advanced by beating Libertyville 13-2.

Viator, which is ranked No. 2 in the state, had trouble with Lake Zurich (16-3), which was ranked sixth in the state, in the first half. With Lake Zurich playing a very tight zone and Bears goalie Aidan Lipari turning away six first-half shots, the Lions only led 6-4 at the half.

“Lake Zurich has such a great season, we knew it would be a dogfight,” St. Viator coach Geoff Harty said. “Against a great team defense, it takes a while. That’s why usually there are more goals in the second half.”

It took the Lions just 58 seconds to turn a close game into a total victory.

Brady Tyrrell started it off with a goal thanks to a sweet pass from Dylan Bergt. Fanzen then tallied just 17 seconds later followed by Drake 41 seconds after that and suddenly it was 9-4.

“The team was leaning on me early for scoring,” said Franzen, a senior committed to UMass, who scored five goals.

“But we knew we had to stick to our plan and keep playing our game. We just executed much better in the second half.”

That stream of goals by the Lions turned into a flood as the Lions went on to outscore Lake Zurich 9-3 in the second half.

“The first half started really slowly for us,” said Drake, who is a freshman and also scored five goals.

“Then we started clicking and bang. We were playing on all cylinders. I was just trying to find gaps in the defense and find my teammates.”

The Lions also got two goals from Tyrrell, and others from Henry Crane, Michael Benigni and Seamus Rustay, thanks to a field-long drive and terrific pass from Brayden Tedio.

“I think we finally settled in,” Harty said. “We started making quick, easy passes and then the goals started looking a lot easier.”

Lake Zurich picked up a trio of goals from Camryn Powers. Zach Fecczko, Ethan Elliott, Evan Peterson and Crew Soldano also scored for the Bears.

Lake Zurich had a tough end to its best season in school history. The Bears beat Lake Forest and won their first North Suburban title.

“This 2026 team is the best we ever had,” Lake Zurich coach Michael Sutton said. “And by far, the best senior class we ever had. We went out like champions today. We will remember this team forever.”