Lake Park prevents Wheaton North from earning fifth win

ROSELLE – Lake Park flipped the script on Wheaton North with a 20-7 victory, playing spoiler on senior night in Roselle.

Revenge was in the air. The Falcons needed a Week 9 victory to clinch win No. 5 and firmly secure their place in the IHSA playoff bracket.

All that stood in their way was a scuffling Lancers team coming off a pair of tough road losses. After last year’s convincing win over Lake Park, Wheaton North could all but taste the postseason.

Unfortunately for the Falcons, payback was front of mind for this year’s Lake Park squad.

“We were 4-4 looking to get into the playoffs and they crushed our dream,” said wide receiver Nico Menos, referring to the Falcons’ 42-7 win in 2023. “Hearing that they were 4-4 and [then] getting the win to hopefully crush their playoffs and get them out was really big for us and a really great feeling overall.”

Menos got the scoring started with his first touchdown pass on a 28-yard connection with fellow wide receiver Nicco Gonzalez midway through the second quarter of what began as a defensive struggle.

“We ran a reverse,” Menos said. “We have been running this every day in practice and every day, I overthrow it … as soon as I faked the block and ran the reverse, I waited for the corner to step up.”

“Nicco was wide open and I just lofted it up.”

Wheaton North responded with a 6-yard Dylan Jung direct snap touchdown run to tie the game with 2:38 to play in the half.

From there it was all Robert Munaco for the Lancers.

“Robert means everything to this program,” coach Chris Kirkpatrick said. “We just knew what we had with Robert was special. All season long, he has been a threat on every play to make hard yards.”

He found those tough yards on a pair of second half touchdown runs, as well as a 40-yard scamper in the closing moments that all but sealed hard-earned revenge for Lake Park.

“I just remembered looking at the faces of the seniors [last year] because they ruined our season,” Munaco said. “In the back of our minds? We were thinking about it.”

Wheaton North coach Joe Wardynski saw run defense as a problem Friday night.

“They were able to run the ball on us,” Wardynski said. “Their back ran really well for them. They completed some passes on us when they needed to, but for the most part they ran the ball on us and we just didn’t get enough stops.”

Wardynski said he felt the Lancers were simply the better team this time around.

“They outplayed us, they deserved to win the game,” he said. “It hurts when you’ve got a team that’s 4-4 and you’ve got a chance to earn another week, and we didn’t earn it.”

Wardynski said it was an unusual year for the Falcons and that he was proud of what his team accomplished, regardless of their playoff status.

“The types of wins that we had, none of them were easy,” the Wheaton North coach said. “With this group, it was going to be a fight to the end and they fought to the finish.”

Lake Park keeps Wheaton North from getting its fifth victory