Lake Zurich advances to Championship

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Saturday, Nov. 20, 2010
10:37 PM

By Tim Cronin
YourSeason.com

Lake Zurich's players came into Saturday's 7A semifinal with St. Rita expecting to win.

What the Bears didn't expect, and what St. Rita couldn't fathom, was a shutout. They got one, a 21-0 victory over the Mustangs, to vault them into next week's 7A championship game against Wheaton-Warrenville South.

"I'm on top of the world right now," rusher and defensive back Mike Shield said. "But nothing's over yet. We've still got to get that last thing. I guarantee we'll remember a lot more if we go down there and get that last victory."

Shield intercepted a Brendan Johnson pass to stop one St. Rita drive, plus scored the final Lake Zurich touchdown, and wasn't the only star for the Bears. Quarterback Zach Till ran for Lake Zurich's first touchdown in the first quarter and passed to Jon Mularz for another in the second quarter. Jacob Brinlee rushed for 75 yards on 20 carries.

The key, though, was in shutting down St. Rita's offense. En route to its fourth shutout of the season, the Bears' defense held rusher Jahwon Akui to 77 yards on 23 carries, and forced four turnovers, the last three on St. Rita's last three drives.

"We schemed all week," defensive lineman Jake Christensen said. "As a unit, we're a great team. We don't have a lot of stars on this team. We play as a family."

They also were able to key on Akui in the early going.

"Akui is a great player, but we prepared all week," Christensen said. "We watched four hours of film every day. We were ready to play against him."

Lake Zurich advances to 12-1. St. Rita closes 11-2.

"Turn the ball over in the playoffs, bad things happen," St. Rita coach Todd Kuska said.

The Mustangs drove to the Lake Zurich 5 on the first series of the third quarter and were stopped, Johnson's pass broken up by sophomore Grant Soucy. Their best first-half chance saw Stan Sojka's 35-yard field goal attempt sail wide left.

"I'm proud of the way we battled back," Kuska said.

The title game is a rematch of the 2007 championship, which Lake Zurich won.

"My brother was on that team," Shield said. "I just want to go down there and prove to him we can do it too."

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