Lakes slakes thirst with sweet victory

Mom always says to drink your milk.

Chocolate milk, for the boys on the Lakes football team.

Head coach Luke Mertens says that, according to new research, chocolate milk is supposed to be an even better post-game replenishment than the popular sports drinks most athletes guzzle.

So there was Mertens on Friday night in the wake of his team’s impressive 35-21 road win over Grayslake North reminding his players not to forget to drink their chocolate milk.

All the moms, who were wearing their son’s royal blue home jerseys and gathering on the field for a group picture to cap of what had been designated as Moms Week at Lakes, seemed to approve.

“The chocolate milk is great protein for you,” said Lakes quarterback T.J. Edwards. “You don’t have to buy all those expensive muscle milks or other drinks. Plain ol’ chocolate milk is the way to go.”

There was nothing plain about the Eagles’ game, or Edwards in particular.

Lakes scored on 50 percent (5-of-10) of its offensive possessions, including 4-of-6 in the first half. A big reason for the efficiency is that the offense struck a comfortable balance that kept the Grayslake North defense constantly off balance.

Edwards, just a junior who said he was nervous in his first varsity start, completed 14-of-19 passes for 182 yards and a touchdown, a 27-yard strike in the first quarter to Tom Dubicki. Edwards also ran for 2 touchdowns.

“We were cracking up about how everyone was writing that ‘the Eagles need to find a quarterback,’” Mertens said. “We always knew we had T.J., and we always knew he was good. You’ve got to account for him. You can’t just focus on Direll.”

Ah, yes. Direll.

While Edwards was putting up numbers like crazy, Grayslake North still had its No. 1 concern to contend with. Lakes senior Direll Clark, one of the most highly touted returning running backs in Lake County, was expected to be a handful.

And he was. He rolled up 140 yards and 2 touchdowns on 20 carries.

“We knew that they (the Grayslake North defense) would be eyeing me the whole time so we changed things up a little bit and passed more,” said Clark, whose second touchdown (2 yards) came with about three minutes to go in the second quarter and gave the Eagles a 28-14 lead at halftime. “I was confident in T.J. the whole game. He did a good job.

“He takes a lot of pressure of me. It’s hard for the defense to just key on one of us.”

One player was a big key for Grayslake North.

Quarterback AJ Fish, known for his prolific passing abilities last season, mixed in quite a bit of scrambles and hard runs against Lakes.

In addition to completing 16-of-25 passes for 177 yards, Fish also rushed for 104 yards on 26 carries.

He gave the Knights some life when he ran in a 2-yard touchdown with about 20 seconds left in the third quarter. That cut Grayslake North’s deficit to 28-21.

An interception thrown by Edwards two plays later gave the Knights great field position and they marched all the way to the Lakes’ 14-yard line before coming just inches short on a fourth-and-1 attempt.

The Eagles got the ball back on downs and wound up scoring 10 plays and just four minutes later.

“We weren’t able to capitalize when we needed to, the same thing happened to us when we played these guys last year,” Fish said. “We need to take that extra step and get it done when we need to. We also had turnovers and when you do that three or four times against a great team like Lakes, you’re not going to beat them.”