Coming into last Friday night’s game against the Libertyville Wildcats, the Lake Forest Scouts were experiencing their first extended slump of the season. They had been shutout by conference foe Stevenson by the final score of 23-0, then lost by an even greater deficit the following week against the Warren Blue Devils, 36-7. This week the Scouts, at the very least, were hoping for their struggling offense to begin to show some life and for their defense to hold the Wildcats under 20 points. Unfortunately, neither of which happened Friday night at Libertyville High School.
Libertyville didn’t wait long to start imposing their will on the Scouts. With 5:08 remaining in the 1st, the Wildcats defense stripped the football out of RB Bryan Ooms’ hands in just his third carry, allowing defensive lineman Jon Palmieri to pick up the ball and take it to the house and give the home team a 6 point advantage. A minute and a half later, Libertyville running back Ben Lopez crossed the plain for a 15 yard TD reception from quarterback Alex Stanulis. All of a sudden, the Scouts found themselves down by twelve points and Libertyville still wasn’t done. With the first quarter clock ticking closer to triple zeros, backup QB Tommy Hanson entered the game looking to see if he could provide a spark to the Scouts’ offense. Unfortunately, the Scouts offense still couldn’t produce an answer. Brendan Bazar really fired up the Wildcats faithful when he ran for a 50 yard touchdown with just over a minute left in the first. At that point, Libertyville had a 19 point lead while the Scouts continued to remain quiet.
Lake Forest surely looked better in the second quarter. The defense seemed to step up and the offense started to move the ball with more consistency. With less than three minutes left in the half, junior Tommy Hanson marched the Scouts down all the way to the 25 yard line, but unfortunately Lake Forest could not cash in due to a missed field goal from Jack Brush. The score remained the same heading into the second half and the Scouts needed to be the first to score in order to sustain life in the game.
The Lake Forest defense was starting to look like their normal selves in the third quarter. They were holding what was initially a very productive Wildcats offense to limited yardage and made some very crucial stops as the team approached the red zone. On top of that, the Lake Forest offense finally made it onto the scoreboard. Jack Brush hit his first field goal of the game from 25 yards out in the third, effectively cutting the Wildcats lead to 16. By the time the third quarter expired, the Scouts had to rely on a miraculous fourth quarter comeback to transpire in order to beat the now confident Wildcats on their senior night in Libertyville.
Lake Forest was able to strike one more time, but not before Brendan Bazar had his second touchdown of the game on an 83 yard run, blowing past Scouts defenders. Bazar finished the game with a game high 228 yards. With Jack Mislinski back in at quarterback, the Scouts scored their first touchdown of the game late in the fourth on a 27 yard TD pass to junior Luke Nolan. The game concluded with the score of 26-10 in favor of the Wildcats, who moved to (3-2, 2-1) on the season.
This was yet another frustrating game for the Lake Forest. Libertyville is a good team with talented players on both sides of the ball, but by all means a team that the Scouts thought they could get. The game should have, at the very least, been more competitive as both teams came in with even records and comparable talent. The first quarter was really what did Lake Forest in as they allowed 19 points without getting on the scoreboard themselves. That said, if you eliminate the first quarter, the the Scouts outscored the Wildcats 10-7 the rest of the game. There’s definitely a sense of hope for Lake Forest, but it goes without saying that they just cannot let the game get away from them so early. According to Coach Spagnoli in his interview with Jon Kerr of scoutsfootball.com, the Scouts, “got outmatched physically from the very beginning.”
The story of the game for the Scouts was junior running back Jacob Thomas. After Bryan Ooms only managed to get eight yards on twelve carries and had to leave the game due to injury, Thomas entered hoping to solidify a starting role in the backfield. According to the Daily Herald, Thomas racked up 131 yards on 24 carries. He will definitely be a player to watch in the upcoming games for the Scouts. His quick-bursted style provides a change of pace from the bruising Bryan Ooms.
Looking ahead, things don’t get easier for the Scouts. Up next is the Lake Zurich Bears (5-0, 3-0), who they will face off against on an unusual Thursday night home game due to the Jewish holiday. Lake Zurich has been dominant thus far, outlasting Warren on Friday night on the road in overtime. Not only are they undefeated in conference play, but they also have not lost any out of conference games as they have taken down perennial state powerhouse Montini at home as well as Fremd on the road in Palatine. If the Scouts can find a way to win, it would be an extreme confidence booster and could potentially help lead them closer to a playoff berth come the end of the season.
