Stevenson jumps on Lake Zurich early in shutout win

LAKE ZURICH — Stevenson’s defense was dominant during its 21-0 road win over rival Lake Zurich Thursday.

The Patriots, ranked No. 1 in the most recent Illinois Class 8A Associated Press poll, held the Bears to just 108 total yards (74 rushing, 34 passing) from scrimmage in a North Suburban Lake game. Lake Zurich ran 39 plays on offense, but just three of those went for double-digit yardage.

Stevenson senior cornerback Kevin Pearson intercepted Bears quarterback Joey Lindstrom’s first pass of the game, and the tone was set.

“It was important for us to have a good start, especially in such a key game against such a tough opponent,” Pearson said. “We’ve been practicing all week, going over their plays, their routes — every detail you can imagine. Our scout team deserves a ton of credit, too. They did a tremendous job of preparing us.”

Pearson, who also deflected a pair of passes with lightning-quick closing speed, is garnering interest from several Division I schools, including Illinois State, Western Illinois, Dayton, Purdue, Northern Illinois and Northern Iowa.

“We knew Lake Zurich would have a chip on their shoulder after we rallied to beat them last season, so we had to make sure we had a chip on ours, too,” Pearson said.

Things remained scoreless until midway through the first quarter. Aaron Lund picked off Lindstrom’s second pass of the game, only this time, the result was a 19-yard return for a touchdown.

A strong pass rush by the Patriots’ defensive line and linebackers was instrumental on both forced turnovers. Nick Dillon, Rory Koenig and Jason Vavrick each tallied sacks for Stevenson (6-0, 3-0). Offensively, quarterback Willie Bourbon (18-for-26, 181 yards, TD, INT) picked apart the Bears’ defense with short pass plays.

“Last time I came here to Lake Zurich as a sophomore, I lost, and it kind of left a bad taste in my mouth,” Bourbon said. “Winning this one definitely felt like a bit of redemption for me, personally.”

Northwestern recruit Cameron Green gave the Patriots a 14-0 second-quarter lead with a beautiful sliding one-hand grab for a TD. Junior receiver Jack Sorenson caught seven of Bourbon’s throws for 81 yards, and extended drives on third down four different times.

“Every time we step on to the football field, our offense seems like it finds new threats, new ways of giving other teams more to think about and game plan for,” Sorenson said. “The versatility our offense has is exciting to be a part of.”

Lake Zurich coach David Proffitt didn’t sugarcoat his thoughts after his team fell to .500. The Bears (3-3, 2-2) have made the postseason 12 straight years, but need two more wins to be playoff-eligible, with key division games against Warren and Lake Forest still on the slate.

“We did some things well, but football is a team game,” Proffitt said. “We have to get our act together, fast. Some of our guys played well, but not all of them. As a team tonight, we didn’t execute and we weren’t prepared physically the way we should’ve been. I take full responsibility for that as a coach. We may need to make some adjustments after I look at the film of this one. I don’t know.”

To the Bears’ credit, their defense forced a pair of turnovers, and just two of Stevenson’s 31 rushing attempts were double-digit gains. Running back Ben Klett (10 carries, 60 yards) accounted for more than half of Lake Zurich’s offense.