Greenfield, Lakes gather momentum
It's hard to stop a good football team - especially so when momentum is all in that team's favor.
Lakes has put together four straight victories, and now two in a row in the North Lake County conference.
Senior running back Ethan Greenfield was a key leader for the Eagles, who powered to 38 unanswered points with a total of five scores. Greenfield rushed for 4 TDs on runs of 7, 37, 70 and 81 yards. He also caught a 26-yard touchdown pass and finished with 237 rushing yards on 11 carries.
Lakes ran past Wauconda 38-10 in the NLCC match up in Lake Villa on Friday night.
"I love the sport, and I love the team," Greenfield said. "I feel like I'm performing for them. I want to make them proud of me. I want them to feel like I do this for them, because it what I can do. I wouldn't be able to do this without my teammates. They help me up when I'm down, and they're just amazing teammates. That's where I get my success from."
Actually, it was Wauconda (0-4, 0-2) winning the opening quarter by controlling the ball and keeping Lakes off the field. The Bulldogs took a 3-0 advantage with 32 seconds left as Oscar Acosta made a 32-yard field goal.
But Wauconda had lost one of its running backs, Andry Nevski, to an injury in that first quarter.
The Eagles got their offense clicking in the second quarter. Greenfield rushed for a 7-yard score to cap a 9-play, 60 yard drive for a 7-3 lead with 9:37 left.
Ethan Schmidt recovered a fumble for the Eagles at the Wauconda 42 after a bad exchange in the Bulldogs backfield. Eight plays later on a third-and-22 from the 26, Greenfield scored on a screen pass to put Lakes up 13-3 with 6:21 left.
Greenfield wasn't done yet, making moves and breaking tackles for TDs of 70 and 81 yards.
"If you can get someone to fill the hole and think they can get you, and then you bounce off, it's a super play," Greenfield said. "That's what I try to do. I've never had something like this before. It's pretty surreal."
There was one more Greenfield score on a 37-yard run early in the third quarter that to make it 32-3.
Parker Canning added the other score, catching a 17-yard pass from Jake Johnson for a 38-3 lead with 9:16 left in the third.
Wauconda scored when Cameron Francis scampered in on a 10-yard run.
"We had some good drives early, but we just couldn't finish them," Wauconda coach Dave Mills said. "We knew Lakes was going to be a good team. Unfortunately, we couldn't stop them on some big plays."
"We had another strong show by the defense," Lakes coach Jordan Eder said. "We had (Wauconda) at 3 points throughout the game and that was great. Offensively, we had some big plays, but we didn't establish drives like I wanted to."