Lake Zurich takes punch, KOs Warren

Updated: September 10, 2011 12:32AM

Warren stunned host Lake Zurich with a pair of touchdowns on its first six plays from scrimmage, but the Bears recovered and knocked off the Blue Devils 33-14 on Friday in the North Suburban Conference Lake Division opener for both teams.

Lake Zurich trailed 14-3 after one quarter, but scored the game’s final 30 points to win going away.

Bears kicker Mike Leiva had a huge game, nailing field goals of 30, 27, 40 and 39 yards.

The winners also got touchdowns from Zach Till (seven-yard run), John Orlando (55-yard punt return) and Mike Rantis (recovered a Warren fumble in the end zone).

Warren struck suddenly, as Lake Zurich fumbled on its second play of the game and on Warren’s first play, quarterback Adam Reuss threw a 23-yard scoring strike to Mitch Munda.

Then, after the first of Leiva’s field goals, Davonte Willcox raced 74 yards to the house for a 14-3 Blue Devil lead.

But that was it for Warren’s scoring.

“I think the fight we put up was the thing I liked the most tonight,” said Lake Zurich coach Bryan Stortz. “We fought hard last week too (a loss to Cary-Grove), but it didn’t go our way.”

Both coaches said a blocked punt by Chris Rantis that set up Till’s TD run was a key turning point in the contest.

“Any time you have a big swing in field position, especially on a blocked punt, it changes the momentum quickly,” said Stortz. “We still have some challenges to overcome and we have a lot of youth on our team, but I was very pleased with how hard our kids fought.”

Warren is now 0-3, but still very much playoff-viable.

“Definitely. No question about it,” said Warren coach Dave Mohapp about how he likes his team’s chances of making the playoffs. “I’d like the intensity we played with. We were sloppy and made some mistakes, but if we clean up those mistakes and play four quarters, good things will happen for us.”

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