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Lakes happy Triplett decided to return to football

The high-tops have been subbed out for cleats.

Senior Leighshawn Triplett is well known at Lakes High School as a basketball player. But football fans are now happily getting to know him as a football player, too.

Triplett decided that in his final year of high school he wanted to give varsity football a try.

He is a cornerback for the Eagles, and, the funny thing is, he's playing like a veteran. Triplett had an interception for a touchdown last week in a win over Highland Park and already he has 3 interceptions on the season.

Triplett's interceptions are part of 8 turnovers the Lakes defense has forced in just two weeks.

"Leighshawn has been basically a basketball-only player at Lakes for two years. He played football as a freshman but then focused on basketball only as a sophomore and junior and he got into AAU basketball and everything so he was busy with basketball," Lakes coach Jordan Eder said.

But Eder, whose 1-1 team travels to North Chicago Friday night, has had Triplett in his strength and conditioning class for the last two years and has tried again and again over the last two years to get Triplett to return to football.

"Leighshawn is a great athlete and he decided to give it a shot with football again and we are really glad he did," Eder said.

Well, hello: It didn't take long for Jack Lochner to make an impact with his new team.

The Lakes senior wide receiver transferred in from Niles West over the offseason and had a doozy of a play on the Eagles' very first play of the season.

"He took the opening kickoff of our Deerfield game (in Week 1) and returned it for a touchdown," Lakes coach Jordan Eder said. "We knew right when he got here that he is a very versatile and talented athlete. And he has been showing it."

Double trouble: It's been a two-headed monster for Lakes at running back so far this season.

The Eagles are splitting time there between senior David Garcia and sophomore Mark Hunter.

"We've had a nice couple games from both of them," Lakes coach Jordan Eder said. "David gives us some power and Mark gives us some speed and finesse and it's nice because they complement each other and give each other breaks and keep each other fresh."

Garcia and Hunter are taking over the massive hole left by all-area running back D'Lo Hardy, who is now starting at North Central.

"We don't know if we will ever be able to totally fill the shoes of D'Lo. Those are big shoes to fill," Eder said. "But the two of them are doing a really nice job so far."

Catching up: It's been a long road back to under center for Libertyville quarterback Blake Ellingson.

He was starting last season as a sophomore but he broke his leg in Week 2 and spent the rest of the season recovering from surgery.

So far, Ellingson seems to be back on the right track. He has passed for nearly 400 yards over the first two weeks.

"He's catching up but I think he's been playing pretty well so far," Libertyville coach Mike Jones said. "He's a competitor and we saw that when he was a sophomore. When he gets the ball in his hands, he is fearless. He's getting better each week, he just needs to keep getting experience."

Is eight enough? With two sophomores and two newer juniors on the offensive line, Libertyville is a bit of a work in progress up front.

"We knew there would be some bumps in the road because we are young and inexperienced there," Libertyville coach Mike Jones said. "But we are already seeing them get better and better."

Senior Eddie Downing, juniors Adam Pressley and Ty Lawrence along with sophomores David Freedman and Josh Sears are the starters, but Jones has also rotated in a few other lineman to make sure everyone stays fresh and focused as they learn on the job.

"We play about eight offensive lineman," Jones said. "Injuries happen, things happen so we want to get more guys experience. That way, if we do need others to play, they know what's going on. The other nice thing is that with so many guys learning, we have a lot of guys pushing each other and helping each other and making each other better. That's helped with competition on the line and it's made all of those guys a tight group."

That hurts: It's been a rough start to the season for Libertyville in the injury department.

So far, five players have been lost to injury, three in Week 1 and another two last week. All of them are defensive players, and three are starters.

"We are trying to find guys to plug in," said Libertyville coach Mike Jones whose team is now 1-1 after a Week 2 loss to Waubonsie Valley. "We've got young guys now and we've got to catch them up."

Poor defensive lineman Joey Neal. The junior starter was injured on the second play of the season, in a Week 1 win over Carmel.

"He got his foot caught underneath and hurt his knee," Jones said. "He started last year as a sophomore. It was tough (seeing Neal go down).

"So now we've got a lot of learning on the job. We've got some really good kids with talent, but we didn't expect some of them to be playing this much so early."

Jones says he'll have some newbies at linebacker because there is depth there. And that depth allowed him to move starting linebacker Brady Wells to the line to fill the hole left by Neal.

"Brady is flourishing in his new role," Jones said. "He did a lot of good things last week."

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