The Lake Forest College football team posted its program record-tying 13th consecutive victory on Saturday, prevailing 45-14 at Ripon College.
The game's first points came from a 49-yard field goal on the opening possession by Forester kicker
Hudson Schambach. It was the second-longest field goal in school history, just one shy of the 50-yarder made by Pat Dunne in 2002. Schamback also made all six of his extra points on Saturday and is now the program's career leader with 100 in just 16 games.
The visitors added to their lead on a 9-yard touchdown run by tailback
Taylen Goodwin later in the first quarter and the first career touchdown reception for freshman tight end
Charlie Fragassi in the second. He caught a short pass from
Ethan Springer and sprinted into the right side of the end zone from 11 yards out to give the Foresters a 17-0 halftime lead.
The only score of the third quarter was a 54-yard touchdown from Springer to
Dom Esposito. Esposito caught a wide receiver screen on the right side of the field, made his way up and across the field through the Red Hawk defense, and with the help of several downfield blocks from linemen and other receivers, reached the end zone along the left sideline.
The teams combined for five touchdowns in the fourth quarter. After the home team finally got on the scoreboard, Springer hit Esposito again on a 26-yard score. Ripon answered but so did the Foresters from 35 yards out on Esposito's third touchdown of the game and 12th this season. Backup quarterback
Robert Knorr closed out the scoring with a 7-yard touchdown run with 51 seconds remaining.
Esposito finished the game with eight catches for 177 yards, the eighth-highest single-game total in team history, and now has 837 receiving yards in just six contests this fall. Springer connected on 17 of 26 passes for 284 yards and four scores. He has completed at least four touchdown passes in every game this year and his 26 on the season is the second-highest total ever for a Forester quarterback.
Lake Forest was also successful on the ground on Saturday, rushing for 182 yards.
Brayden Long led the team with 89 yards on just eight carries while Goodwin covered 72 on on 11 attempts.
The Forester defense kept Ripon off the scoreboard for the first three quarters. Linebacker
Blake Ware and safety
Evan Vernon led the unit with 11 and 10 tackles, respectively, and Ware accounted for 2.5 of the team's nine tackles for loss.
Defensive tackle registered the visitors only sack of the game and forced a fumble that rolled out of bounds on the play.
Merino Merola recovered a fumble to end the Red Hawks' first drive of the third quarter and
Quentin Robinson picked off his second pass of the season and returned it 45 yards to set up Knorr's score in the fourth. Lake Forest has forced 13 turnovers and committed just one this year.
After winning their final seven games of 2025, the Foresters are off to a 6-0 start to this season. Their 13 consecutive victories match the program record streak from the spring and fall of 2021. The team also improved to 4-0 in Midwest Conference play while Ripon fell to 1-5 overall and 1-3 in the league.
Lake Forest will continue alternating home and away games next Saturday when the team takes on Luther College on Farwell Field at 1:00 p.m.
