Lakes gets its kicks, tops Round Lake

With about four minutes to play in Saturday's North Suburban Conference Prairie Division game at Round Lake, Lakes kicker David Tomis launched a 41-yard field goal attempt.

It was on target, but quickly running out of gas.

Then, it hit the crossbar-and dropped through the back end for 3 points.

It was just that kind of day for Lakes.

The Eagles haven't had many days like that this season, but against Round Lake, just about everything was working en route to a 34-13 victory.

"I kind of got lucky on that one," Tomis said with a smile. "It's my longest field goal of the year."

Lakes has now won two of its last three games and moves to 3-5 overall and 2-3 in the Prairie Division. Round Lake stays winless at 0-8 overall and 0-6 in the Prairie.

"It was nice to get some of the frustration out, finally kick back and get a big win," Lakes quarterback Justin Hotle said. "That was really nice."

The Eagles also enjoyed being able to hold onto a lead for a change.

They've gotten ahead of several opponents this season, but have had trouble closing out games. This time, they jumped to a 31-0 lead and were never seriously threatened.

"This was definitely long overdue," Lakes coach Luke Mertens said. "We needed a good game like this. We came out and scored a lot of points. It helps to have a quick start like that. We've done that a few times this year and haven't been able to maintain it. Round Lake came back a little to making things interesting, but we were able to hold on."

Lakes sprinted out to a 21-0 lead with two minutes still remaining in the first quarter.

Hotle looked sharp from the moment he stepped on the field. In the first quarter alone, he completed 6-of-7 passes for 81 yards and 2 touchdowns - an 8-yarder to Andrew Tubek to open the scoring and then a 46-yarder to Kevin Kelly.

Josh Gaido's 10-yard run gave Lakes its 21-point advantage.

Tomis punched in a 32-yard field goal to give Lakes a 24-0 lead at halftime and then Noon ran in a 4-yard touchdown to put Lakes up 31-0 with 8:16 left in the third quarter.

"Kevin and I found each other a lot today and that screen (for the touchdown) really got things going for us today," said Hotle, who connected with Kelly four times for 77 yards. Hotle wound up completing 15 of 22 passes for 179 yards.

"Our linemen were also providing great protection," Hotle said. "Nothing was getting through."

The same could be said for the Lakes defense for most of the first three quarters. Round Lake was often stuck in neutral, and sometimes moving backward.

But with 2:06 left in the third, Round Lake finally found its opening.

Quarterback Matt Ortiz (13-of-25 for 172 yards) hit a sprinting Dan Krause in stride with a pretty pass down the sideline that turned into a 78-yard touchdown.

Then, just minutes later, at the start of the fourth quarter, Ortiz struck again, this time finding David Windham for a 15-yard touchdown.

"The line was blocking pretty good today and we stuck in there. We were fighting throughout the game," said Ortiz, who hung tough despite playing in discomfort. He bruised a kidney two weeks ago and was given clearance to play, but is still sore.

"It's been a tough year," Ortiz said. "But we're playing hard because we love the game."

Tomis closed out the scoring with his 41-yard field goal.

"We show spurts of being a good team," said first year Round Lake coach John Coursey. "But then we do things to beat ourselves."