Lake Forest's Friedman making up for lost time

One look at Gregory Friedman's arm, and you can't help but wince.

It looks about as painful as the hurt he single-handedly put on the Antioch defense Saturday afternoon.

The Lake Forest running back got his left forearm ripped apart two weeks ago by a facemask. With about a dozen or so stitches running along his arm, he sat out last week to let the gash heal.

He had it covered with a bandage while he was on the field, but immediately after the game, he removed it to air out his bright red, jagged badge of honor.

"My arm is fine now," Friedman said. "It felt good just to play again."

Friedman seemed to be making up for lost time.

Bad arm and all, he took handoff after handoff and wound up rushing for 230 yards and 3 touchdowns to lead Lake Forest to a 31-0 North Suburban Conference crossover thumping of visiting Antioch.

The victory kept Lake Forest perfect at 5-0 overall. The Scouts are just 1 win away from clinching their second consecutive playoff berth, and are also running neck and neck with Lake Zurich in the race for the North Suburban Lake Division crown.

"(Lake Forest) is having a pretty magical season," said Antioch coach Brian Glashagel, whose team has lost its last three games and drops to 2-3 overall. "That's the best defense we've seen all year. They are disciplined on defense. We knew we were going to have our hands full blocking those guys."

By halftime, Lake Forest had built up a comfy 17-0 lead with a balanced attack. While Friedman ran all over the place -- and scored touchdowns of 30 and 3 yards -- quarterback James Borrasso had hooked up with his receivers for 69 yards.

The Scouts even had a 19-yard field goal by Steven Roth to their credit.

Meanwhile, Antioch couldn't get anything going whatsoever.

The Sequoits mustered just 12 total yards and 1 first down in the first half.

"They were sending guys flying up, sending them in all the gaps," said Antioch quarterback Ken Karagiorgas, who ran the show in place of injured starter Matt Romani. "We just weren't blocking today, we weren't playing our game today."

Romani suffered a high ankle sprain last week against Wauconda. His forte is running Antioch's option offense.

Glashagel said his leadership skills were also missed.

"Kenny (Karagiorgas) has gotten a ton of reps and he's doing anything we ask him to," Glashagel said. "But it hurt having Matt out. I mean, he's a good player, a good leader. He does such a good job of controlling the huddle. There could be bombs going off and he's as calm as can be.

"There's a difference when you change quarterbacks like that."

On the other hand, Lake Forest loves changing quarterbacks.

The Scouts rotate Borrasso and sophomore Thomas Rees on every other series.

Lake Forest added to its lead midway through the third quarter when Rees hit Andrew Carpenter (5 catches, 72 yards) with an 18-yard touchdown pass.

A Friedman 59-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter rounded out the scoring for the Scouts.

"It's all up front with the (offensive) linemen," Friedman said. "Everything (all the credit) goes to them."