The Forester football team turned in its second shutout of the season on Saturday, defeating visiting Cornell College 56-0 in the final regular season game at Farwell Field this fall.
The day began with the home team honoring its seniors in a pregame ceremony. Among them was wide receiver
Dom Esposito, who continued his assault on the school record book by surpassing the previous single-season receiving yardage mark set by Kevin Davis 15 years ago. Esposito caught five passes for a team-high 86 yards and a touchdown on the day and now has 1,306 receiving yards on the season.
Another season record will likely last just one more week as quarterback
Ethan Springer finished the afternoon just 20 shy of Pete Scaffidi's 2,910 passing yards in 2011. Springer completed 24 of 35 attempts for 294 yards and three scores on Saturday. He also ran for a game-high 94 yards, including 82 on a second quarter sprint to the end zone to match the fifth-longest rushing play in program history.
Springer connected with
Luke Maxson on a 4-yard touchdown pass and
Jack Lewis on a 45-yarder in the first quarter. Those scores followed a 5-yard fumble recovery and return by
Jackson Baird after the snap skipped past the Cornell punter on the game's first possession.
Tailback
Cole Sorensen reached the end zone on a 5-yard run early in the second quarter and Springer's long run made the score 35-0 at halftime.
After a scoreless third quarter, the seniors added to the Foresters' lead in the fourth. Running back
Vance Cooper crossed the goal line from four yards out, Esposito turned a short pass into a 30-yard touchdown, and defensive end
Preston Mosher took a handoff from classmate
Zach Wren and worked his way into the end zone on a 1-yard run.
Hudson Schambach followed up each of the team's eight touchdowns with successful extra points and is now 72-for-73 on the season. He also averaged 63.7 yards on nine kickoffs with five touchbacks.
While the Forester offense surpassed 500 yards for the sixth time this year, the defense limited the Rams to just 230. Linebacker
Zachariah Brayboy led the unit with a career-high 11 tackles while safety
Evan Vernon was next on the team with six.
Blake Ware added five tackles from his linebacker position, including the 200th of his career, and two of those stops came behind the line of scrimmage. He was also one of six players on that side of the ball with a pass breakup.
The victory was Lake Forest's ninth in as many games this season and the Foresters are 7-0 in Midwest Conference play. Saturday's game was the last of the year for the Rams, who finished 4-6 overall and 3-5 in the league.
The Foresters will look to complete a perfect regular season and earn at least a share of the program's ninth conference title at the University of Chicago next Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.
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