Kaden Abrantes and Lake Zurich ran past Antioch 35-0 Saturday in the second round of the Class 6A state playoffs Saturday in Lake Zurich.

Running behind an offensive line of Jake Pacini, Andy Marmol, Matthew Musso, Jackson Griglione, Oliver Goodman and Jackson Lewandowski, Abrantes ran for 172 yards on 16 carries with a touchdown.

“I run real well because I have the best line in the county,” Abrantes said. “They all block perfectly for me. We can’t run outside always. We have to grind it inside to open up the outside.”

Pacini, who anchors the offensive line at center as the Bears rushed for 239 yards, said his team was ready for their rematch.

“We had great preparation all week,” said Pacini, who is a senior. “We did this to them before and we wanted to come out with the same energy. Our first drive set the tone for the game.”

Lake Zurich won the first meeting 33-0 in Week 2 of the regular season.

“It’s hard to play somebody twice,” Lake Zurich coach Ron Planz said. “We knew they would have some different stuff for us. But our kids rose to the occasion.”

Lake Zurich (9-2), which is seeded fourth, will play at top-seeded and three-time defending 5A state champion Nazareth (10-1) next weekend. Nazareth rallied from a 7-0 halftime deficit to beat Wheaton Warrenville South 28-7 Saturday.

Pacini and his crew up front had things going well from the onset for the Bears. Lake Zurich marched 54 yards on 9 plays, with Abrantes carrying the ball on seven of those plays. That included an 11-yard spurt right up the middle for a 7-0 lead.

It stayed that way until the second quarter when the Bears defense, which has posted five shutouts this season, got Lake Zurich on the scoreboard. Tyler Bonelli-Schultz undercut a short pass and returned it 16 yards for a touchdown to make it 14-0.

That opened the floodgates for the Bears.

They tallied two more scores in the final two minutes of the first half. Reid Pfeiffer ran two yards for a touchdown. He then threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Evan Peterson with 14.9 seconds left in the half to make it 28-0.

Antioch (8-3) opened the second half with its best drive of the game. The Sequoits moved the ball to the Bears’ six-yard line. But the Lake Zurich defense came up with a stop.

The Bears defense then was able to come away with their second red zone stop.

After Antioch’s Damion Johnson intercepted at the Lake Zurich 23, the Sequoits moved to the seven-yard line. But the Bears defense, led by Brock Rubicz, Arturo Zarinana, Lewandowski, Peterson, Chris Chang, Cooper Gwizdala, Frankie Arnieri and Rocco Dicanio, held again as Dicanio had a sack on fourth down to end the threat.

“I feel like we have a good scheme going into every game,” Rubicz said. “We had already come off a big win against them, the mindset was that we wanted to stick the nail in early.”

Lake Zurich added a late touchdown as Pfeiffer (7-of-11, 94 yards) connected with Peterson again. This time it was a one-yard touchdown pass late in the fourth quarter.

“The best thing is the way our kids play,” Planz said. “They play hard, they play fast and they play physical.”

Antioch coach Brian Glashhagel said that his team came up with good effort.

“Our kids played hard,” Glashhagel said. “We tried to make things interesting. We got kind of aggressive in our special teams and some other plays. But kudos to them for making some big plays and keeping us out of the end zone.”

https://www.dailyherald.com/20251108/prep-football/lake-zurich-wins-again-against-antioch-advances-to-6a-quarterfinals/