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Lakes slips past Wauconda

Trailing Wauconda 30-20 late in the third quarter, visiting Lakes had its back against the wall Friday night in Northern Lake County Conference football action.

But the Eagles came through when the chips were down on both sides of the ball as they pulled out an exciting 34-30 NLCC victory over the Bulldogs in a very competitive back-and-forth game.

Wauconda (2-3, 1-2) took the 30-20 lead when senior Erik Trela (68 yards on 23 carries) ran way wide to the right to find the end zone on an 8-yard TD run with 34.8 seconds left in the third quarter.

Good field position helped Lakes (4-1, 3-0) on its ensuing drive as a 32-yard pass from Chris Selig to Conner Nordmeyer put the ball on the Wauconda 19-yard-line.

Two plays later, Selig (5-for-11, 105 yards passing) hit Dylan Keilwitz with a 14-yard touchdown pass before the extra point by Ethan Gheysen cut the lead to 30-27 with 10:15 to play.

Wauconda sophomore quarterback Nick Bulgarelli (15-for-24, 204 yards passing) did it all for the Bulldogs offensively but after rushing for 95 yards on 7 carries he finished the game with 68 yards on 11 carries due to numerous crucial sacks late in the contest.

After a 7-yard sack and a punt, the Eagles put together what would prove to be the winning drive early in the fourth quarter.

Lakes senior running back D'Lo Hardy rushed for 5 TD's and 268 yards last week, but the Bulldogs did a great job of containing him to 45 yards on 18 rushes Friday night.

Senior Dylan DeAngelo (89 yards on 9 carries) broke free for a 46-yard run to take the ball down to the Wauconda 9. Three plays later, DeAngelo scored on a 3-yard TD run to make the score 34-30 with 5:44 to play.

"It was a tough time running the ball, but our passing game got a lot of work," said Hardy, whose team had 146 of its 312 total yards of offense through the air. "At the end of the game we put a lot of pressure on their quarterback and we knew they had to pass."

Bulgarelli came through with a huge 36-yard pass play to Mike Olsen on a third-and-16 play as Olsen caught the ball after it was practically in a Lakes' player's hands at the Eagles' 35-yard line very late in the fourth quarter.

But the 6-2, 200-pound Hardy forced a fumble on second down for a 6-yard loss before another sack on third down for an 8-yard loss with a huge hit on Bulgarelli pretty much sealed Wauconda's fate as an incomplete pass clinched the win for Lakes.

"No matter what these guys are fighting, and it's all about making big plays," said Lakes coach Jordan Eder. "The ground game was not as good as we wanted, but they just keep fighting, and that is all you can ask for as a coach."

A safety put the Bulldogs on the scoreboard first before Trela scored on an 11-yard run for an early 9-0 lead.

Hardy scored on a 14-yard TD run before teammate Bradley Cherry caught a 29-yard TD pass from Selig for a 14-9 lead. Bulgarelli answered with a 52-yard TD run and he also kicked 4 extra points.

Keilwitz caught an 11-yard TD pass from Jeff Nielsen for a 20-16 halftime lead.

Javerius McGuinn caught a 22-yard TD pass from Bulgarelli for a 23-20 lead midway through the third quarter. JJ Jacobo also had a big game receiving for Wauconda.

"We were one play away, I'm proud of the kids, and they competed," said Wauconda coach Dave Mills, whose team had 340 total yards of offense. "It's been fun to watch his (Bulgarelli's) maturity as a sophomore, and he's grown up every week."

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