Lake Zurich shuts out Mundelein

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Lake Zurich quarterback Tanner Witt couldn’t let two of his younger teammates upstage him, especially not on his Senior Day.

With fellow senior and backfield mate Andrew Maloney mainly confined to the sidelines with a bum ankle, Witt had to represent the Class of 2009 on a day when he and all of his senior teammates were honored before kickoff.

Despite struggling in the passing game and surrendering the spotlight early on to sophomore Jacob Brinlee and junior Robby Wilson, Witt (6-of-18 for 72 yards) took to the ground running with 93 yards on five carries and a rushing touchdown to lead the Bears to an emphatic 34-0 win over Mundelein (0-6, 0-2) on Friday night. The victory snapped a two-game losing streak and resurrected LZ’s hopes of defending last year’s Class 7A state title.

“After losing those couple conference games (to Stevenson and Warren), which I thought we should have won, I think it was pretty important that we just came out and kept scoring and scoring,” Witt said.

Maloney played just the first series of the game and scored the Bears’ first touchdown on a 16-yard run in the first quarter but was pulled after the drive so that he could nurse his still-healing ankle. Brinlee (8 carries for 56 yards, 61 return yards) took over running back duties in Maloney’s absence and looked impressive carrying the football. The sophomore scored on a 24-yard run on LZ’s next possession, putting the home team ahead 13-0 less than four minutes into the contest.

After surrendering the two early scores, Mundelein’s defense did well to limit the Bears (3-3, 2-2) for the remainder of the first quarter. Witt was intercepted twice in the first nine minutes by R.J. Bond and Bryan Whitson and again in the third quarter by Mike O’Donoghue, but the Mustangs struggled to move the ball offensively.

Junior Joe DeJesus and senior Aaron Metzger filled in for starting quarterback Brian Santiago, who missed the game because of a concussion suffered last week against Warren, but both quarterbacks failed to complete a pass throughout the entire 48 minutes.

“I thought the defense actually played a pretty good game,” Mundelein head coach Bob Stone said. “We put some pressure on the quarterback, we had some nice plays, and I thought the defense gave us a good effort tonight.”

The Bears extended their lead to 20-0 in the second quarter on an 18-play drive that lasted 9:20 and was aided by two long Mustang penalties. Witt capped the series with a 14-yard touchdown pass to senior John Brewer with 1:38 remaining in the half.

Just three plays later, LZ again lit up the scoreboard on an interception returned for a score by Wilson, who registered his second interception of the game on the play. Witt closed out the scoring with 4:34 left in the third quarter on a 47-yard touchdown run before all of the Bears’ starters were pulled.

With games against Lake Forest and Grant in the next two weeks, LZ still has a lot of work to do before the playoffs. Still, Witt is confident the Bears have the personnel to make it back to the postseason.

“Defense is always big, just like last year,” Witt said. “Our defense always keeps the game close, and in those big games, we’ll need them to step up. Now, we have to go 3-0, we just have to.”