Rough and ready
By JOHN SAHLY
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jsahly@daily-chronicle.com
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| DeKalb’s Sammy Lake (right) breaks away from Sycamore’s Hugo Ortega during the first half of the game at the Northern Illinois University Soccer and Track and Field Complex on Oct. 5 in DeKalb. (Beck Diefenbach – bdiefenbach@daily-chronicle.com) |
DeKALB – When Brent McIntosh looks out on the field at sophomore outside midfielder Sammy Lake, he sees a familiar name from DeKalb soccer past.
"Sammy reminds me a lot of Ryan Black in terms of his physical play, talent level and speed," said McIntosh, the DeKalb boys soccer coach. "He has definitely lived up to expectations as far as his play on the field."
Lake, like Black, a prolific goal scorer for the Barbs who graduated last school year, is an undersized but physical player who doesn't mind mixing it up with players bigger and stronger than him. It has paid dividends for the Barbs, who continue their playoff journey today with a 6 p.m. game against Woodstock Marian in the Class 2A Freeport Sectional semifinal at Belvidere High.
Asked to describe his style of play, Lake needed one word: Rough.
"I play pretty rough. I play aggressive but I try and play smart at the same time," Lake further explained. "I've been playing like that forever. You have to play smart, too, because if you don't then you're not going to be any help to the team."
The first-year varsity player has had to learn to adapt multiple times this season. First, he thought he would be playing defense until the DeKalb coaches moved him to outside midfielder. Then, he suffered a concussion trying to make an aggressive play that kept him out a month.
Since then, he's worn a Full90 headguard to protect his head during games.
"My main concern with Sammy is to keep him healthy with his style of play," McIntosh said.
Lake said he learned about balancing his play between rough and heady.
"Ever since that time it really taught me to play smart," Lake said. "If I get one of those again I'm out for a year. Next school season I might take [the headgear] off but if I'm playing with it, I might as well keep it on. You never know what's going to happen."
With Lake on the sidelines, DeKalb's offense suffered and the 14-6-4 Barbs started winning more one-goal games instead of multiple goals.
"The first few games you could tell we were lacking something," senior Jake Johnsen said. "But I think we accommodated nicely. Then once he got back we just got going."
Lake got going quickly as well, and has kept the Barbs' offense moving with his ability to out-quick defenders and distribute the ball across the box.
This past Saturday, that talent was on display as he notched three assists in DeKalb's Sterling Regional title victory.
"He does a great job of getting himself into a real good position to help distribute the ball back across the box," McIntosh said. "He was a big piece of the puzzle that was missing offensively."
Lake said he's just happy to contribute to the team, especially if that means trying to run through a couple of seniors that appear to have a distinct physical advantage.
"I'm pretty fit and strong for my age but I'm playing guys that have 30-40 pounds on me and are experienced, too," Lake said. "I just play through it.""
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