The Forester football team posted a 24-0 victory at Wisconsin Lutheran College Saturday night in the season opener for both teams.
Lake Forest's defense limited the Warriors to just 160 total yards and only 24 on the ground. Junior linebacker
Nik Rieck led the unit with five tackles, including two behind the line of scrimmage. Graduate student
Alex Bendler, a defensive end, recorded 3.0 tackles for loss to take his career total to 42.5, breaking a tie with current assistant coach Jaron Eanes for fourth place in program history.
The only two turnovers in the game were fumbles recovered by the Forester defense. Bendler forced one in the second quarter with senior safety
Jimmy Lonigro recovering. The other was caused by junior cornerback
Darion Miller and recovered by sophomore safety
Thomas DeChesaro in the third.
Grad student
Tre Stewart led the Lake Forest offense, completing 22 of 41 passes for 289 yards and a touchdown He also rushed for 44 yards and another score. Junior wide receivers
Trevor Land and
Langston Metoyer were Stewart's favorite targets and established new career-highs for receptions and yards. Land caught six passes for 108 yards while Metoyer covered 88 yards on his five grabs.
The Foresters ran for 156 yards and junior tailback
Josiah Kidd led the way with 67 on 16 attempts.
Stewart started the scoring with a 3-yard touchdown run with 4:39 remaining in the opening quarter. Junior running back
Wilson Buckley then made it a 14-0 game on a 17-yard run with just 38 seconds left in the period.
The Warriors had a 1st-and-goal from the Lake Forest 1-yardline in the final minute of the first half but were driven back a few yards and had their field goal attempt blocked by junior defensive lineman
Donnevan Plummer to keep the score at 14-0 at halftime.
Lake Forest scored on its first two possessions of the second half. Stewart capped off the first drive with an 18-yard touchdown pass to junior wideout
Seth Jelovic and sophomore kicker
Beckham Sonnabend finished off the second with a 27-yard field goal. Sonnabend also made all three of his extra points on the night.
Saturday's contest was the Foresters' only non-conference game of the regular season. They will begin pursuit of a third consecutive Midwest Conference title at Illinois College next Saturday with kickoff scheduled for 1:00 p.m.
