LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The Lake Zurich Bears football team has been quite impressive thus far in the 2017 season and was looking to improve to a perfect 6-0 start against the Lake Forest Scouts Thursday night. Every player wearing a Scouts uniform needed to play to their absolute potential in order to defeat the Bears on a non-traditional Thursday night tilt in Lake Forest.

The biggest concern for Lake Forest before the game was how their offense was going to fare against the best defense in the North Suburban Conference. With brutal offensive struggles in the three games prior, it was no surprise that the Scouts were having troubles getting first downs, eventually garnering only eight total first downs in the contest. As a result, they looked to their defense to keep the game close yet again. Unfortunately, despite a first half that featured the Scouts within one score of tying the game for most of the way, the game got away from Lake Forest in the second half. Lake Zurich proved last night that they deserve to be among the state’s elite on both sides of the ball.

The Lake Forest Scouts defense looked very sharp in the first quarter. They prevented the Bears from taking an early lead through a series of crucial stops, including one critical stop on 4th down in Scouts territory as they stuffed a handoff to Wisconsin-bound linebacker Jack Sanborn. It seemed like they had truly bounced back from what happened in the first quarter of last week’s contest against Libertyville where they surrendered 19 points and, in turn, a 19 point deficit. They were able to provide their offense a chance to grab the lead early. Unfortunately, the Lake Zurich defense was at their best on the road and Lake Forest didn’t even come close to the Bears’ red zone in the first quarter of action. As expected, the Scouts were attempting to utilize their running game and play off the success of hard-running Jacob Thomas from last week, which became a struggle for the Scouts. Lake Zurich finally broke the seal with 2:04 remaining in the first quarter when Zach Davis drilled at 34 yard field goal. Following that, things began to go downhill for the Lake Forest Scouts.

In the second, the Scouts defense was playing sharp yet again. They made a handful of stops, hoping that the offense would eventually get rolling. With 2:07 remaining in the first half, the Scouts gave up their first touchdown of the game, giving Lake Zurich a ten point lead. In an effort to keep the game close, the Scouts offense finally started to move the chains before the half as they attempted to cut the lead to one score. They marched all the way down inside the ten yard line, but could not cross the goal line. After electing to bring on the field goal unit on fourth down rather than attempt to score a touchdown, Jack Brush pulled the short field goal wide left. 

In the third quarter, Lake Zurich and their passionate student following that made the trip east on Thursday began to take over. Right out of the gate in the second half, Lake Zurich was able to extend their lead to 17 points when QB Evan Lewandowski and Matthijs Enters made a connection in the endzone. The Scouts were flagged a couple times on that drive unnecessarily, which gave a good team second chances at multiple junctures in the drive. The Bears added three more points at the end of the quarter to give them a 20 point advantage. The Scouts offense was completely shut down in the third. It seemed like they tried everything, but nothing seemed to work. 

The final quarter of the contest went as expected. Lake Forest’s offense continued to have their struggles moving the chains, while the defense succumbed to yet another touchdown drive for the Bears, allowing them to extend their lead to 27 points. The score remained 27-0 as time expired, ending another disappointing night for the Lake Forest Scouts. 

Jack Mislinski was 6-19 passing on Thursday night, while Lake Zurich QB Evan Lewandowski went 27-50 for 295 yards. Jacob Thomas, who was a player to watch for last night, finished the game with 62 yards on 17 carries, which averaged out to be 3.64 yards per carry. John Deering led the way for the Scouts on defense with 8 tackles, two of which were  for a loss.

Lake Zurich’s player of the game was not the highly touted Jack Sanborn, shifty halfback Joey Stutzman, or even receiver Payton Powell, who was coming off of his best career game. Rather, it was Matthijs Enters, an under the radar player entering the gam, finished with 106 receiving yards on seven receptions and two touchdowns. Lake Forest really seemed to have trouble controlling him and he made the Scouts pay.

If there is one bright side to yesterday’s game, it is the fact that the hardest part of Lake Forest’s schedule is over. Next week the Scouts will travel to Zion-Benton to face off against the Zee-Bees. The Zee-Bees are currently (2-3) on the season and (1-2) in conference play. If the Scouts want to keep their playoff hopes alive, they need to defeat Zion-Benton. Looking ahead to next Friday, the game should be really close and come down to the wire. Most importantly, this will be the Scouts’ best chance in four games to bounce back on both sides of the football.

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