Lakes puts finishing touches on perfect Prairie run
What looked like a laugher turned into a marathon, as visiting Lakes held on to defeat North Chicago 51-34 in a North Suburban Conference Prairie Division football game Friday.
The victory capped a second-straight perfect run through the NSC Prairie for Lakes (7-1, 6-0), which visits Mundelein next Friday night in its conference crossover. North Chicago (3-5, 1-4) dropped its fourth game in a row, as the Warhawks were officially eliminated from playoff contention.
Mike Brey led the Eagles with 4 touchdowns, while rushing for 157 yards and 3 touchdowns. He also scored on a 47-yard fumble recovery.
Lakes backup quarterback Josh Buchholtz ran a 23-yard touchdown.
North Chicago’s Arnold Shead scored 2 touchdowns and threw a 50-yard TD pass to Damien Patton to pull the Warhawks within 41-26 with 1:31 left in the third quarter.
Shead scored on a 20-yard run and threw to James Shelton for the conversion to make the score 49-34 late in the fourth quarter.
The Eagles’ final points came on a bad snap that went over North Chicago’s punter and out of the end zone for a safety.
Several Lakes players, including quarterback T.J. Edwards, missed the game.
“The players did a great job of not making excuses,” Eagles coach Luke Mertens said. “We have a ridiculous amount of injuries. Guys stepped up.”