LAKE FOREST, IL. — Friday’s Senior Night football game for Lake Forest didn’t go as planned. Predicted storms forced an early start to the game and the Scouts were also unable to celebrate the achievement of these seniors at halftime; that had to happen beforehand. The predictions were correct and the weather pushed the game to a Saturday finish. The Zee-Bees managed to hold the lead over the weekend and come away with the road win, 30-28.
Both teams started off slow, and the game remained scoreless for the majority of the first quarter. With four minutes left and a 4th and 12 on the Lake Forest 16 yard line, the Zee-Bees managed to find the end zone first with a touchdown pass from Jerome Crawford to Javaughn Reed.
The Scouts responded minutes later when Mac Uihlein rushed for a three yard touchdown to tie the game up at seven. Seconds later, Zion Benton took back the lead with a kickoff return touchdown, making the score 14-7. Then the craziness began.
The underdogs didn’t stop there, a 50 yard touchdown pass from Crawford to Jeffrey Watkins pushed the lead to 21-7. Prior to the aforementioned lightning delay, Coach Spagnoli’s team tightened up the game with a 23 yard touchdown pass from Tommy Hanson to Luke Nolan: 21-14.
The Scouts were clearly fired up on Saturday afternoon. When the game resumed, they used short touchdown runs by Mac Uihlein and Jacob Thomas to propel them to a 14-3 run which made the score 28-24 with two minutes left.
The Zee-Bees immediately drove down the field against an undermanned (more on that later) Scouts defense and scored a touchdown to make the score 30-28. The excited spirit was sucked out of the home fans.
Two big receptions from Ryan Cekay gave the Scouts a chance with only seconds remaining. Kai Kroeger then missed a 39 yard kick which would decide the game. The Zee-Bees secured the road victory 30-28.
Lake Forest’s season is on the brink with only two games remaining as they also need two wins to earn a playoff bid. They haven’t missed the playoffs in eight years and will need road wins over Libertyville and Stevenson if they’d like to keep that streak alive. The injuries are piling up as the Scouts saw juniors Matthew Garrigan and Breck Nowik and senior safety Eddie Scheidler miss time Saturday. Also, senior defensive back Luke Nolan was absent Saturday as he was visiting Oberlin College. They also committed eleven holding penalties and had about as far from a perfect game as they’ve seen all season. They will need a next-man-up attitude and a much more disciplined effort these final two weeks if they want to play a tenth game.
Senior captain and offensive linemen Chase Bahr had this to say following the disappointing loss: “We lost as a team, and there is not one person nor one thing to blame. There were mistakes on both sides of the ball along with mental errors that should have never happened.” The drama is only beginning and will be sure to heat up as Lake Forest gears up for their do-or-die games.
