It's an outright Lake title for Warren
Sharing is nice in preschool, but not in a race for a football title.
In the 12 years that Dave Mohapp has been the head football coach at Warren, his teams have never won a North Suburban Conference title outright. The Blue Devils have been co-champions, but never champions.
On Friday night at Stevenson, with a North Suburban Conference Lake Division championship versus a possible co-championship on the line, Warren was trying to avoid sharing as vigorously as a child with a new toy.
The Blue Devils wanted this one to themselves - and thanks to a spectacular second half that more than made up for an atrocious first quarter, they got it.
Warren zipped by Stevenson 50-25 to move to 7-1 overall. The Blue Devils close out Lake Division play with a perfect 6-0 record for the first time since the conference went to a division format.
That gives the Blue Devils that outright title that has been eluding them all these years. Had Warren lost the game to Stevenson and Stevenson then defeated Mundelein next week, Warren and Stevenson would have shared the division title.
The last time Warren earned a share of an NSC title was in 2000 - with Libertyville.
"This is really good for us," Mohapp said. "I'm happy this happened."
Mohapp got what most coaches get on such an occasion - a dousing with the water cooler along the sideline in the final seconds.
"We got him bad, real bad. He's probably still soaked," laughed Warren wide receiver Ryan Maguire, who caught 5 passes for 117 yards. "We've been talking about (the sharing) all week. We're on cloud nine right now."
The Blue Devils spent most of the second half there.
After sleep-walking through the first quarter and allowing Stevenson to jump out to a 13-0 lead in the first eight minutes, Warren woke up and couldn't have been sharper.
The Blue Devils scored 14 points in the second quarter to cut their halftime deficit to 19-14 and then turned four of their six second-half possessions into touchdowns. Meanwhile, they forced Stevenson into five second-half turnovers, including three interceptions.
Warren cornerback Leonard Brady made a key interception in the end zone early in the fourth quarter. Had Zach Wujcik's pass landed in a teammate's hands as intended, Stevenson could have taken a 3-point lead.
Instead, Warren killed Stevenson's drive and then put together a scoring drive of its own. Eight plays later, the Blue Devils scored to take a 36-25 lead with 7:52 remaining. Talk about a swing.
Later on, Aaron Montgomery intercepted two more Wujcik passes to put away the game for good. Montgomery returned one of his interceptions for a touchdown (35 yards).
On the night, the Blue Devils got 2 touchdowns apiece from running backs Mike Liao (19 carries, 116 yards) and Tom Lindal. Warren's steady running game opened up its passing game and quarterback Zach Shaw finished with 202 passing yards and a touchdown (6 yards to Maguire) on 8 of 16 attempts.
Running back Mark Weisman was Stevenson's workhorse. He plowed his way up and down the field for 189 yards on 31 carries.
The Patriots (4-4, 3-2) also got out to a quick two-touchdown lead two weeks ago against Libertyville, but wound up losing that game as well.
"That's actually three times this year that we've gotten up early (by two touchdowns) and then lost," Weisman said. "We've got to learn how to close."