Fremd showed that it’s not just the Johnny O’Brien show.

The Vikings unveiled an aggressive defense Friday night in Palatine that put the clamps on Lake Zurich. Fremd forced three turnovers and came up with a pair of stops inside its own 10-yard line to stymie the Bears as the Vikings rolled to a 35-3 victory.

Led by Troy Pepe, Tom O’Brien, Jason Hardy, Marquan Brewster, Matt Klimas, Anthony D’Ambrosio and Owen Jakubczk, the defense held Lake Zurich without a touchdown for the second consecutive year.

“We had some guys really step up and play physical,” Fremd coach Lou Sponsel said. “We rotated through eight different defensive linemen just to keep them fresh. We played well.”

Meanwhile, O’Brien, who was the Daily Herald Cook All-Area captain last season, appeared to not have missed a beat. He was 23 of 31 for 315 yards and three touchdowns. O’Brien said that despite his lofty stats, the defense had the heroes.

“Going against our defense this summer, I knew they were going to be special,“ O’Brien said. “Our offense is very dynamic (and) our defense shut us down the whole summer.”

It was the second consecutive opening season win for Fremd over Lake Zurich and the first time the Vikings have done that in the 16 years that the teams have met. Lake Zurich still leads the series 10-6.

The Vikings used a pair of turnovers to build a 14-0 lead.

Brewster had an interception for the Vikings on Lake Zurich’s first offensive series. That led to a 10-yard touchdown run by Hardy.

Late in the first quarter, Pepe stripped the Lake Zurich running back and Klimas recovered. That would set up a 2-yard touchdown pass from a scrambling O’Brien to Carter McDonald in the back of the end zone.

After a huge tackle for loss by Jakubczek at the Fremd 12, the Bears were forced to settle for a 26-yard field goal by Tyler Vuckovic that made it 14-3.

O’Brien then showed why he is Northwestern bound after this season. The senior drove the Vikings down the field in under two minutes with Jayden Faulkner capping a 77-yard drive with a one-yard run to make it 21-3 at the half.

O’Brien, who completed passes to seven different receivers, hooked up with Brewster (nine receptions, 178 yards) for a pair of second half touchdown passes of 9 and 57 yards.

Despite the loss, Lake Zurich coach Ron Planz said he saw lots of good things from his team.

“I thought overall we did some good things,” Planz said. “We moved the ball well. But we turned the ball over and didn’t finish drives liked we hoped. But yeah, there is going to be a lot of good on the film.”