Lake Zurich locks up playoff berth

In a game that was delayed an hour and 30 minutes due to lightning and then played in a torrential rain, Lake Zurich prevailed 28-13 over host Zion-Benton in the teams' North Suburban Lake Division finale Friday night.

The victory for Lake Zurich (6-3, 4-2) clinched a playoff berth for the defending Class 7A state champs, who likely would have earned an at-large berth even with a loss.

Lake Zurich scored 18 unanswered points in the first half, but Z-B wouldn't go away in its final game of the season. Quarterback T.J. Trepanier threw an 18-yard pass to Matt Nicklas and Colby Green plunged for 1 yard to bring the Zee-Bees within 18-13 with 5:20 left in the third quarter.

Lake Zurich responded, scoring 16 points in the fourth quarter.

Andrew Maloney scored from 2 yards out, and Wade Self ran in for the conversion. The Bears then got a safety when the ball on an attempted punt by Zion-Benton was snapped out of the end zone.

Devian Ruiz concluded the scoring with a 4-yard run on a sweep. It was his second touchdown of the night.

"In the first quarter we came out to play," Lake Zurich coach Bryan Stortz said. "In the third quarter, (Zion-Benton) came out to play. ... We were lucky to prevail."

Zion-Benton finished 0-9, 0-6.

"I was proud of the way our kids hung in there despite of the weather conditions," Zee-Bees coach Kelly Rice said.

Barrington 33, Conant 7: Barrington is back, on a mission, and now things could get interesting.

The Broncos rebounded formidably Friday night from the previous week's overtime loss and walloped host Conant 33-7 to conclude the regular season, finish 3-2 in the Mid-Suburban West and go into the Class 8A playoffs with a 7-2 record and a lot of momentum and confidence.

Can they fulfill a team goal and go deep into the playoffs as they have more than once in recent years past?

"I think so," said an extremely confident Sam Ojuri, who scored 4 touchdowns.