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Sports

Brinlee Goes Out with a Bang

Lake Zurich's all-time leading rusher put himself into the IHSA record books with his 232-yard performance on Saturday. But for Brinlee, it's all about the team.

CHAMPAIGN — Jacob Brinlee was understandably subdued when he faced the media following the Bears' 28-17 loss to Wheaton Warrenville South in Saturday's Class 7A championship game.

Lake Zurich went toe-to-toe the entire contest with the powerhouse Tigers, who hadn't lost a playoff game since 2008 and suffered just one regular-season defeat in two years (that coming during Week 2 in 2009 to two-time defending Class 8A state champion Maine South). Yet the Bears came up short.

But Brinlee simply ran wild.

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Brinlee exploded for 188 yard in the first half on a Tigers defense that isn't used to giving up much of anything, especially points (foes averaged only 8.5 points in the playoffs vs. Wheaton South prior to Saturday). He wound up with 232 yards on 33 carries—a Class 7A state title game record, eclipsing the old mark of 194 yards.

Brinlee, though, wasn't thinking about the new record. He wanted just one more opportunity to take the field with his teammates.

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"I'd trade anything to play another game with them," Brinlee told Lake Zurich Patch. "I love all of them, and that's what I'm going to take away (from his high school football career) is a great group of guys."

Coming up huge in big games, and establishing new records, is nothing new to Brinlee, as Lake Zurich football fans know. During last year's run to the 7A quarterfinals, for example, Brinlee ran over Rolling Meadows for 212 yards and a touchdown.

This fall, Brinlee rewrote the school record book twice. During a 44-22 win over Libertyville early in the season, he ran for three touchdowns—two over 80 yards, and a third over 50 — while setting a new single-game school record of 281 yards. In the Bears' first-round playoff triumph against Jacobs, Brinlee surpassed Mike Stumpp (2,915 career yards) to become Lake Zurich's all-time leading rusher.

But for Jacob Brinlee, it's all about the team.

"The offensive line played great," he said. "They opened up some big holes so that's what it turned out to be. The rest of my team played good, so I owe it to them. Me and the team just really believed in one another. I think that's the most important thing. We just came out and played as hard as we could. We made some mistakes, but I don't question anyone's heart."

Brinlee, a tireless worker who's a big fan of the late Walter Payton, ends his prep career with over 3,000 yard. And what an exclamation point he put on it Saturday.

Tigers defensive back Caleb Bednarz managed to throw Brinlee for a 7-yard loss late in the game, but that proved to be one of the few times Wheaton South stopped the 5-10, 170-pounder in his tracks.

After Wheaton South grabbed an early 7-0 lead, Brinlee helped the Bears drive for the tying touchdown with five rushes for 54 yards. He then carried 10 times for 64 yards during an 11-play, second-quarter scoring drive that put Lake Zurich in front, 10-7, on 27-yard field goal by Mike Leiva.

"He's tough to bring down," Bednarz said. "He ran over me a couple of times. We definitely didn't expect him to run all over us. We consider ourselves to be a very good defense. The defense takes a lot of pride in ourselves, but he's a great player and he ran all over us."

Wheaton South head coach Ron Muhitch paid Brinlee, his backfield mates John Mulars and Mike Shield, and the Bears' offensive line the ultimate compliment following the title game. He knew Brinlee and the Bears were going to grind it out on the ground, but Wheaton South still couldn't contain them.

"Credit (goes) to Brinlee," Muhitch said. "He kept them in the game single-handedly. I thought they were very dangerous. And what's more even amazing about that is I knew they weren't going to throw the ball. You put those three guys out there, and you know they're going to run the ball and we still didn't get it done.

"What a great credit to him, to their offensive line to get the job done and put pressure on our defense. That was a great job keeping ball possession and moving the chains."

Needless to say, Jacob Brinlee has worn out more than a few chain gangs wearing a Bears' uniform. 

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