Aaron Stewart, Warren grind out 10-3 win against Lake Zurich

GURNEE – This has been an atypical year for Warren, but the Blue Devils pulled out a couple of familiar traits Friday against Lake Zurich – running between the tackles and great defense.

Running back Aaron Stewart gained 139 yards on a grueling 37 carries, while the defense kept LZ out of the end zone to finish off a 10-3 North Suburban Conference victory.

“We told him (Stewart) at the half, because we thought we could stop them, and we needed him to just shorten the game,” Warren coach Bryan McNulty said. “He did a great job and did what Aaron does, got us a few really key first downs.”

Stewart is just 5-8, 185 pounds, and you can tell he’s been wrestling a long time just by looking at him.

“I’m getting used to (a heavy workload) at this point,” Stewart said. “I’ve been doing it all season, I can keep doing it as long as I need to. I think we’re just getting started. I think this is the game that turned it around for us.”

Stewart scored the game’s lone touchdown on an 11-yard run at the 7:15 mark of the second quarter. It capped a 16-play, 92-yard drive, with Stewart getting the ball 13 times.

Lake Zurich’s defense made him work. Of the 37 carries, only two went for more than 10 yards — the touchdown, and a 33-yarder earlier on the long drive.

The Bears (4-4) scored on their opening drive, getting a 36-yard field goal from Jesus Vilchis. LZ moved the ball at times, but never made it back in the red zone. A couple of standouts on the Warren defense were middle linebacker Julian Vieux and lineman Christopher Augustus, who had a couple of key tackles for loss. McNulty said Vieux broke a finger last week against Stevenson, but stitched it up and kept playing.

“He’s not huge, but he’s tough,” McNulty said of Vieux. “It’s cool. Kids like him, they don’t look the part, but he does a good job.”

Warren (5-3) plays NSC leader Libertyville next week, but has a playoff spot wrapped up with a fifth win. Lake Zurich needs to beat 7-1 Stevenson next week, but the Bears have won seven straight games in a rivalry that goes back decades.

“I think whenever you get in a rivalry game, the record doesn’t matter,” LZ coach Ron Planz said. “It sounds cliche, but it’s so true. When two teams are as close as we are and share districts and boundaries and schools, it’s going to be a heck of a game.”

Lake Zurich RB Alex Pirrone had a good start on the field-goal drive in the first quarter. Then his next 11 carries netted zero yards. The Bears lost senior QB Cole Kenyon to an injury in Week 4, and junior Reid Pfeifer has kept LZ in contention.

“Obviously, every experience for him is a new experience because he hasn’t started many games,” Planz said. “This is probably the first one that’s one of those playoff atmosphere, big-time type of games. I thought overall he played well.”

Warren hasn’t lost three games in the regular season since 2017, so the record is surprising to some. But the Blue Devils are trying to bounce back from some bad luck.

“We’ve had eight starters that are out for the season, three of them were offensive linemen,” McNulty said. “Early in the year, that really shook us. It was tough. They’re really a resilient group of kids. Last week they were about as low as they could be and they just came back, they buckled down in practice.”