Last Friday was not your typical school day. In the hallways during passing periods you could see blue and gold as far as the eye could see. Everyone, including the faculty, seemed to be in a great mood in anticipation for the night to come.
At 2:20, 5 hours and 10 minutes before game time, the pep rally kicked off. We heard the band play their hearts out, the dance team dazzle the Lake Forest faithful through eye-opening stunts and moves, and, of course, the football team dress up in cheer clothes and bust out some moves with the poms and dance team. Students were dismissed around 3:15, 4 hours and 15 minutes until game time. As the clocked ticked closer to 7:30 Scouts fans swarmed the bleachers ready to cheer on their hometown football team.
Warren’s opening drive seemed promising at the beginning. The Scouts were trying to figure out a way to defend Micah Jones, a Notre Dame commit, while the Blue Devils running game was constantly picking up yardage. When they reached the Scouts’ end of the field, momentum quickly shifted when the Scouts DB Eddie Scheidler forced a fumble. Lake Forest had the opportunity to fire up the home crowd, but failed to do so as Warren’s dismantling defense forced a three and out. The Scouts continued to be flagged for pass interference against Jones, resulting in Warren picking up some serious yardage that led them into field goal range. With 3:31 remaining in the first, the Blue Devils struck first on a 14 yard field goal. Warren wasn’t done with the Scouts yet in the opening quarter. On the ensuing kickoff the Blue Devils special teams unit forced a fumble and recovered it on the Scouts’ 22 yard line. Roughly two minutes later, Warren turned that into six points when senior wide receiver Ricky McLaughlin crossed the plane for a TD reception. At the end of the first, Lake Forest wasn’t looking to shabby but needed to turn things around in the second quarter down by nine points.
After Lake Forest and Warren swapped possessions a couple times, the Blue Devils got back to business again. Warren was having a really solid drive until they got deep into the Scouts redzone. On 4th and goal from the five yard line, instead of head coach Bryan McNulty deciding to make the safe bet and bring out the kicker to attempt a field goal, he kept the offense on the field hoping they would get an additional seven points. The offensive line bought QB Ian Schilling plenty of time in the pocket and eventually he found an open man who dropped a pass that should have been caught.
The Scouts’ offensive struggles continued as they failed to get into the end zone, forcing them to bring on punter Ryan Durburg. With the ball on the Scouts 49 yard line and close to a minute left in the half, Notre Dame recruit Micah Jones came up incredibly clutch. His first catch of the drive was a 36 yard reception putting them not just in field goal range, but close enough to get a touchdown with less than 45 seconds left. After a couple tries to the end zone, Micah Jones again hauled in a catch to give Warren a 15-0 lead over the Scouts heading into the half. According to Jon Kerr of Scoutsfootball.com, Warren had run 23 more offensive plays than Lake Forest. The Scouts defense would need to completely halt the Blue Devils offense in order to give the offense a chance at scoring 15 or more. It unfortunately seemed like the same problems from the Stevenson game were happening all over again.
The students that stuck around for the second half could tell you how crazy the third quarter was. The beginning of the third featured a similar story to the end of the first half. Notre Dame commit Micah Jones had a 23 yard TD reception. Now, down by 22, the Scouts had dug themselves a hole that they likely wouldn’t be able to get out of, or so we thought. Bryan Ooms, however, continued to make huge plays for the Scouts. On Friday night he provided the offense with a major confidence booster. With 5:21 left in the third, Ooms rushed for a 46 yard touchdown condensing Warren’s lead to two touchdowns and a two point conversion. That was the first time the Scouts had scored in over 6 quarters. 49 seconds after the touchdown, Lake Forest forced a fumble and recovered it on the Warren 15 with 4:32 still on the clock. Now the Scouts were churning. The Scouts needed a touchdown desperately. Come 4th down, however, the Scouts had moved practically nowhere. Therefore Brush came out looking to cut the Blue Devils lead to 12. Unfortunately the snap, hold, and kick were sub par, resulting in the kick going wayward to the right, leaving the score at 22-7. In football, second chances don’t come around very often, but lucky for the Scouts, they got one 16 seconds later. Ian Schilling threw the ball right to a Scout roaming in the secondary, Eddie Scheidler, as part of a miscommunication with his receiver. 39 seconds into the Scouts young drive, Mislinski pitched the ball to his running back at the very last second who never had full control of the ball when he was laid out by a Warren defender. The Blue Devils recovered the ball in the Scouts’ redzone. With 0:52 seconds left in the third Warren tacked on one more touchdown giving them a 22 point advantage once again.
The 4th quarter was dead. It seemed like both teams had already accepted the outcome of the game. Therefore, the backups came in for each team. With three seconds left in the game The Warren Township Blue Devils scored one more time giving them a 36-17 advantage, which eventually became the final score.
Despite playing poorly as a whole, there were some players that did stand out and had great games.
Bryan Ooms: Ooms officially broke the Scouts’ long touchdown drought with a 46 yard run. He continues to be productive on both sides of the ball. In addition, Bryan recently received an offer from the University of Butler in Indianapolis! Congrats, Bryan.
Caleb Durbin/Eddie Scheidler: First year player Caleb Durbin had a solid overall performance last night. In some cases he had to defend against Micah Jones, who had a significant height advantage over Durbin, but he didn’t let that phase him. Durbin was knocking down passes and defending Jones tight enough to the point where Schilling could not take the risk of throwing him the ball.
Scheidler, on the other hand, made some really nice plays despite being undersized as well in his matchup with Jones. He forced a fumble, picked off a pass, and broke up many more, doing his part to help the Scouts defense.
The Scouts return to action this Friday against Libertyville on the road. Head out and support your school in what should be another exciting rivalry game.
