Lake Forest's Offensive Outburst Leads to Win Over Libertyville

LIBERTYVILLE, IL - Lake Forest had been waiting two weeks for this.

After having its game against Waukegan canceled last week, the Scouts were looking to get back on the field and pick up where they had left off: by scoring 40 or more points in the team's wins.

"I'd love to tell you that there was some secret to our gameplan tonight, but there really wasn't," Lake Forest coach Chuck Spagnoli said. "Our kids didn't get a chance to play last week, so it was a frustrating experience for our kids and thought they did a great job and guys played hard on both sides of the ball."

The Scouts did that and added some more points for good measure, as they took down host Libertyville 56-19 Friday evening in Libertyville, ruining the Wildcats' Homecoming night.

The game looked as if it'd a high-scoring affair from the get-go, as the Wildcats took the opening kickoff and scored in six plays, capping the drive with a 15-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Connor Dickson to Kristian Gavric.

The Dickson-Gavric connection would be a popular one Friday evening as the two connected 17 times for 189 yards and two touchdowns.

"We were taking what they were giving us defensively tonight and I think that was part of the success the two had," Libertyville coach Mike Jones said.

But just as soon as the Wildcats scored, the Scouts (5-1, 4-0 North Suburban Conference) responded with a five-play, 74-yard drive that saw quarterback Leo Scheidler connect with Cade Nowik on one of the pair's two touchdown collaborations.

"Coming into today, me, Leo and Cade, we were saying 'this is what we do, our bodies are healed after the week off and let's just get after these guys,'" Lake Forest running back Jahari Scott said.

It was from then on, however, that the Scouts decided to pour it on.

The squad scored on its next possession, when Scheidler ran in for a rushing touchdown of his own, this an eight-yard scamper en route to the end zone.

A 44-yard touchdown pass from Scheidler to Nowik made it 21-7, a Scott five-yard run made it 29-7 before the Wildcats were finally able to regain a bit of momentum.

Or at least they thought.

After a Dickson-to-Gavric score cut the lead to 29-13 with 36 seconds remaining, Scott (83 rushing yards) took the ensuing kickoff 71 yards to the end zone taking any momentum Libertyville had swung its way before the break.

"After the kickoff, we knew we had to keep up the tempo, keep up the tempo, keep pushing these guys," Scott said.

Our offense carried us in the first half," Spagnoli said. "They were almost impossible to understand and just kept making plays and making plays and making plays.

"It took them (Libertyville) out of the game."

The Wildcats (4-2, 3-2) came into the game hoping to establish their run game behind the running of Dickson, as well as Sam Pinsel, but that never really came to fruition.

Dickson would finish with 53 rushing yards, in addition to 224 passing yards and the two touchdowns to Gavric, but it wasn't enough for the Wildcats to pull out a win.

"They did a really nice job of not allowing us to run the ball," Jones said. "I thought we were going to be able to run the ball better than we did and we didn't.

"Offensively (Lake Forest) is very efficient. We had some inexperience in the secondary that showed and they took advantage of it."

After coming out of the halftime locker room with a 36-13 lead, the defense really stood up in the second half for the Scouts.

The defense forced two turnovers, including a 50-yard interception return for a touchdown by Robert Pasinato and Scott added a one-yard scoring run, while Schiedler (169 passing yards, 131 rushing yards, two rushing touchdowns and two passing touchdowns) added his fourth score on a 16-yard keeper.

"(Dickson)'s a really talented kid and we were concerned about him coming in, more about him running the ball than throwing the ball" Spagnoli said. "But then as things turned out, the game got out of control for them and they had to throw it."

The Wildcats would close out their scoring with a 99-yard kickoff return for touchdown by Andrew Scott right after Scheidler's last score.

The loss marks the second in a row for Libertyville and Jones feels like he knows what the team has to do to reverse its course and make a playoff push.

"We just have to rally," he said. "We're better than we've shown. We've got some inexperienced players that need to improve, play better, but we got to coach them up.

"That's what it comes down to. It's on us as coaches to get them in a position where they can be successful."

Spagnoli, on the other hand, knows that the game with Libertyville marked a key point in the season, as the Scouts face key conference matchups with Lake Zurich and Mundelein before taking on the league favorite in Warren in the week's final week of the regular season.

"This was an important game for our guys," he said. "We've got three big ones coming up, every one is big. That's just what it is right now."