Lake Forest 23, Libertyville 20 OT
Fans who arrived a little late and left a little early at Libertyville on Friday night would not have seen Lake Forest score, or even generate much offense.
Imagine the shock on the face of those casual fans when they learn that Lake Forest, which scored 2 touchdowns in the first five minutes of Friday night's game, tied the game at 17 with a 17-yard Steven Roth field goal as time expired. The Scouts eventually won by a score of 23-20 in the first overtime when sophomore quarterback Tommy Rees connected on a 10-yard pass to Andy Carpenter just one play after Libertyville's Alvaro Castro connected on a 25-yard field goal.
Now imagine the shock Libertyville is experiencing. The Wildcats end the season 4-5 and out of the playoffs for the first time since 1996. The Wildcats hadn't finished a season below .500 since the early 1990s.
"Words can't describe how they feel, how the coaches feel, how I feel," Libertyville head coach Randy Kuceyeski said. "I hope that they eventually understand and appreciate what they did tonight in the second half."
What Libertyville did in the second half was bounce back from being just about left for dead in the first. The Scouts (6-3) scored on the second play from scrimmage on a 47-yard run from Gregory Friedman. On the Wildcats' first offensive series, Lake Forest's Brian O'Callaghan recovered a Wildcats fumble to give his offense good field position, which led to a 14-yard connection from Rees to Finney. The Wildcats' offense sputtered the whole half, as they managed just 57 total yards and 3 first downs -- 30 of the total yards and 2 of the first downs coming on the final three plays of the first half.
What followed was an impassioned halftime plea from Kuceyeski -- a "classic," he said. And the Wildcats responded by forcing four consecutive three-and-outs on defense and not allowing a Scouts first down until after tying the game on a 6-yard touchdown pass from Tom Piazzi to Josh Trees with 11:55 left in the game.
Later in the fourth quarter, Castro hit a 38-yard field goal with 5:45 left to give Libertyville a 17-14 lead, and Libertyville appeared to be in control of the game when the Wildcats defense forced another three-and-out and blocked another punt.
But on the ensuing play, Libertyville's Tim Matheson fumbled at the end of an 11-yard run and Lake Forest's Robert Jackson recovered, giving the Scouts first-and-10 at their own 22 with 3:26 left in the game.
"We were expecting to win," Rees insisted. "We were so happy that the defense got the ball back, and we were ready to go. I knew everyone was feeling good about our chances."
Rees moved the ball down to the Libertyville 30 with 1:00 left when the Scouts faced a third-and-2. Rees found Carpenter for 26 yards to set up a first and goal with 36 seconds left. A holding penalty on the next play made it first-and-goal from the 15.
On third-and-goal from the 3, Rees' pass to Carpenter in the end zone was ruled incomplete, but a pass interference penalty put the ball on the 1 and gave Lake Forest a fresh set of down with 10 seconds left. The Scouts ran two more plays from scrimmage before bringing out Roth to kick the field goal.
In the first overtime, the Wildcats could muster only 2 yards on three plays before kicking a go-ahead field goal before Rees found Carpenter on an out pattern for the winning touchdown.
"I'm so happy for our guys but I do feel for what's going on over there," Lake Forest coach Chuck Spagnoli said. "I've been there before, and I think their program is where I'd like ours to be someday."