Lindal, Warren: Worth the wait
After spending Friday enjoying his 17th birthday, Warren junior Tom Lindal still hadn't gotten a birthday present.
After four quarters of the Blue Devils' road contest against Lake Forest, Lindal was still waiting for the perfect birthday gift.
So what better way to celebrate your birthday than to be the hero.
After Warren scored on its first drive of overtime to cut its deficit to 42-41, it seemed the next step in the process would be to kick the extra point and move on to a second OT.
But there was nothing normal about how the Blue Devils got to this point.
Rather than stay with conventional wisdom, the Devils decided to go for the win and in the process of doing so, they gave Lindal a nice birthday present to boot. Lindal's two-yard dive play over the right guard lifted the Devils to a dramatic, 43-42 win, keeping Warren perfect at 5-0, 2-0 in the North Suburban Lake.
"I will take a birthday present like that any day," said Lindal, who rushed for 175 yards and a pair of scores. "The only thing that would have been better is if we would have played in the mud."
Oh yes, the mud. Lindal's No. 22 jersey was covered in mud on the back from warmups, but it hardly slowed him down and the Scouts never could quite seem to find an answer for either Lindal or senior Greg Kennedy.
"Tom is a great fullback and he does a great job of blocking for me," said Kennedy, who also had a pair of scores and 151 yards on the ground. "But he is also a great back that can take it to the house any time."
It was Kennedy who put the Devils within 1 point with a 1-yard scoring run on fourth down in overtime. Then came the decision to go for two.
"It came down from our coaches in the press box," said Warren coach Dave Mohapp. "With the type of style we play and the type of game that (Lake Forest) plays, we knew we couldn't keep going all night. That's a heck of a good football team over there."
Lake Forest (1-4, 1-2) brought the game to overtime after a sensational drive by senior quarterback Tommy Rees. The Notre Dame-bound Rees engineered a 13-play, 72-yard drive that culminated with his fourth touchdown pass of the night - all to senior Connor Moutvic - with 20 seconds to play in regulation.
"That kid is a heck of a quarterback," Mohapp said of Rees. "But I thought our offense did a great job tonight moving the ball and scoring points."
Warren took its first lead of the night on a 9-yard run by Lindal, and then gained the lead back when Lindal ran it in from 57 yards out at 35-28 with 1:59 to play in regulation.