Nazareth lights it up against Lake Zurich
The flashes of lightning to the east stayed away from Lake Zurich's stadium.
Instead, Nazareth and sophomore quarterback J.J. McCarthy put on an aerial show of a different kind.
McCarthy, who had a scholarship offer from Iowa State entering his freshman year of high school, showed off his thunderbolt right arm by throwing for 298 yards and 4 touchdown passes, as the Roadrunners won 25-0 Friday night in a battle of last season's state runners-up in Class 7A (Lake Zurich) and Class 6A (Nazareth).
"There's a reason why he's got Power Five (conference) offers as a sophomore," said linebacker Luke Dwyer, who provided Lake Zurich with a couple of its few highlights, snuffing out a fake punt on Nazareth's first possession of the game and later sacking McCarthy. "First-year varsity, he's already got Power Five offers. You're like, 'OK, this kid must being doing something right.' Then you finally play against him and he's running sideline to sideline and making throws that I've never really seen before at the high school level."
It was the first regular-season loss for Lake Zurich (1-1) under second-year coach Luke Mertens, who won his first 10 after coming over from Lakes.
"First of all, that's a great football team," Mertens said of Nazareth, which improved to 2-0. "This wasn't a case where a team came in here and blew us off the field. We didn't make plays. When you're playing a great football team, you have to make plays. And the irony is, that was the message going into the game. We had some opportunities that we didn't capitalize on."
Trailing 6-0 on McCarthy's 31-yard TD pass to fullback Marcus Griffin on the first play of the second quarter, Lake Zurich forced a turnover when linebacker Jason Sayre recovered a fumble at the Nazareth 28 after a completed pass. An interception by Nazareth's Diamond Evans in the end zone ended the Bears' drive, however.
On Nazareth's next series, Dwyer had a would-be interception go through his hands in the end zone. The deflected ball landed in the hands of Bowling Green State commit Michael Love for a 22-yard score and a 12-0 advantage in the second quarter.
"I was really mad at myself for that one," Dwyer said. "I thought I was in pretty decent position on the slot receiver, but I turned around and the ball was there. I didn't expect it to be there. I just made a mistake."
Nazareth added an important third score just before halftime. After a punt, the Roadrunners took over at the Lake Zurich 41 with just 8.6 seconds on the clock. McCarthy then unloaded a strike down the right sideline and into the end zone to freshman Tyler Morris for an 18-0 lead.
"We had Leopard Right," McCarthy said. "We have the inside receiver run a post as my alert, the second receiver run a fly and the outside receiver run a mini dig, and then we have motion coming on the wheel. I saw that they were spying on Michael Love - how amazing he is - on the post. That left (Morris) wide open."
The 6-foot-2, 180-pound McCarthy, who also has offers from South Carolina, Cincinnati and Indiana, finished 15-of-19 passing and didn't turn the ball over. His fourth TD pass came in the third quarter when he got flushed to the right and fired a bullet to Love, who was double-covered in the end zone, from 24 yards out.
"He is a great quarterback," Mertens said. "You're not going to find many better than him."
Nazareth sacked Bears quarterback Matt McGraw five times for 40 yards, and the Bears racked up just 63 yards of total offense (56 passing).
Nazareth coach Tim Racki had praise for Lake Zurich's defense.
"I'm a defensive guy, and how they get to the ball defensively is awesome," Racki said. "Their defense is outstanding. For us, (the win) is great for confidence going into conference."