Clark, Lakes reload in playoff pursuit
With Direll, all’s well that ends well.
Take last season.
“We went into last year wanting to monitor his carries because we knew we’d need him at the end,” Lakes coach Luke Mertens said of star running back Direll Clark. “We went into games not wanting to give him 20 carries a game. As we got toward the end of the (regular) season and we were getting ready for the playoffs, we said, ‘Now we got to give him the ball more.’ We knew he could always do that. We knew as a team we could run the ball, but there are only so many hits a body can take.”
In an opening-round Class 6A state playoff game last fall, Clark carried the football 40 times for 280 yards in a win over Rolling Meadows. And he wasn’t done. By the time Lakes’ season was over, the Eagles had won two playoff games and advanced to the quarterfinals for the first time in their young history.
The 6-foot-1, 215-pound Clark, who’s both bruising and athletic (he dunked on varsity basketball courts last winter), rushed for nearly 2,000 yards and scored 21 touchdowns in an all-state season. He has scholarship offers from Purdue, Western Kentucky and Eastern Illinois. But don’t expect him to carry the ball 40 times every Friday night this season.
The Eagles’ game plan for Clark is the same as last year.
“It’s a long season,” Mertens said. “I’m sure every team that we play is going to have him accounted for. That’s also the more reason why we got to give him some reprieve.”
The Eagles have 16 starters back and will seek the program’s fifth postseason berth in eight years as a varsity program.
They have more than Clark, in short.
“We have some (other) guys that can run the football other than him,” Mertens said.
The ball carriers include junior Cameron Johnson, senior Troy Crow, senior Brandon Brumm and junior Mike Brey.
“All those guys could be our guy, if we need them to be,” Mertens said. “We’re pretty lucky that we have some guys that can run the football for us.”
Mertens has four players vying for the starting quarterback job: senior Levi Haymaker (6-0, 175) and juniors T.J. Edwards (6-0, 185), Brett Gardner (6-2, 200) and Nick Battaglia (6-0, 185). Haymaker backed up starter Chris Hoffman, who made all-conference last year.
“I feel very confident that all four of those guys can execute our offense,” Mertens said. “That’s, by far, our deepest position on the team.”
The offensive line returns the huge senior trio of Dillon Falotico (6-6, 300), Ty Summers (6-2, 275) and tight end Jon Gomulka (6-3, 210). The Eagles also welcome back all of their starting wide receivers, including seniors Justin Bergeron (6-4, 210), Andrew Spencer (6-1, 183) and Crow. Bergeron caught 7 touchdown passes in an all-conference campaign last season.
The defense graduated all-area middle linebacker Alan Gomez and lineman Mike Forney (Wisconsin-Whitewater). But a talented group of returnees includes senior defensive end AJ Goggin (6-4, 215), senior nose guard Matt Boudart (6-0, 185), senior safety Drew Recker (6-0, 190), cornerback Haymaker (4 interceptions last season), senior linebackers Blake Parsons (5-10, 207) and Brumm, and the junior Battaglia. Goggin was all-conference last season, while Brumm made honorable mention.
The Eagles tied for first place in the North Suburban Prairie Division last season with Antioch and Grant. They visit Antioch in Week 5 and travel to Grant two weeks later.
“I’ve always said we’re pretty lucky,” said Mertens, whose Eagles open tonight at Grayslake North. “Our kids work hard here. Going back to our first group (in 2005), we’ve really established a workman attitude, and that definitely has just carried on through the years.”
LAKES
HEAD COACH: Luke Mertens (eighth season, 34-36)
LAST SEASON: 9-3, 5-1 in North Suburban Prairie Division, lost to Batavia in Class 6A state quarterfinals
HOMECOMING: Friday, Sept. 28 vs. Wauconda, 7:30 p.m.