The Forester football team prevailed 31-27 at Knox College on Saturday. Lake Forest junior Austin Sobey became the first player in team history to catch three touchdown passes in a game twice in one season and he tied the program record with his 12th scoring grab of the year.
Sobey caught seven passes for 129 yards in the game but was not the only Forester to set a school record. Senior wideout Kevin Davis had a game-high nine catches for 148 yards on Saturday and now has 1,094 receiving yards on the year, surpassing the previous team record of 1,002 set by Jeff Huebner in 2005. Junior quarterback Pete Scaffidi was 24-of-41 on the day for 315 yards and three scores. He is now the Foresters' single-season record-holder with 203 completions and 2,544 passing yards. He also extended his program record for touchdown passes in a year to 28. Jeff Ziemnik's 187 completions and Matt Mahaney's 2,436 passing yards were the record Scaffidi surpassed on Saturday. Finally, freshman kicker Donnie Caldwell made all four of his extra points in the game to match Pat Dunne's school record total of 31 set in 1999.
In addition to 315 passing yards at Knox, the Foresters also racked up 229 yards on the ground. Junior tailback Al Mitchell led the way with 172 yards on 24 carries and he scored his sixth rushing touchdown of the year. Sophomore tailback Alec Howe added 31 rushing yards and Scaffidi 26.
Freshman linebacker John Preston made his first career start and led the Lake Forest defense with 14 tackles, the most by a Forester this season. Among his stops with 1.5 sacks. Sophomore cornerback Ed Dobernig and junior safety Aidan Price were next on the team with eight tackles apiece.
A 37-yard run by Mitchell set up Scaffidi's 11-yard touchdown pass to Sobey and the visitors were ahead 7-0 with 7:08 to play in the opening quarter. Knox, however, tied the score on its next drive with just 69 seconds on the clock.
Mitchell scored from three yards out to put the visitors back on top two minutes and two seconds into the second quarter. He ran the ball five times for 25 yards and Davis caught two passes for 41 yards on the drive.
The Forester defense forced a three-and-out and a 14-yard touchdown pass from Scaffidi to Sobey capped off a 10-play, 75-yard drive with 5:38 to play in the half.
Neither team scored again in the period and Lake Forest led 21-7 at halftime.
Caldwell connected for a 31-yard field goal, the first of his career, with five-and-a-half minutes to play in the third quarter. The Prairie Fire, however, returned the ensuing kickoff to the Forester 7-yardline and scored on the next play to make the score 24-14.
A Knox touchdown three minutes into the fourth quarter cut the Forester lead to three points and another score by the Prairie Fire gave the home team a 27-24 lead with 4:48 to play in the contest.
The Foresters responded with an 8-play, 71-yard drive that ended with a 28-yard touchdown pass from Scaffidi to Sobey with 1:50 on the clock. Scaffidi ran for 18 yards on the first play of the possession and completed an 11-yard pass to Davis on 4th-and-5 later in the drive.
The Lake Forest defense stopped Knox at the Forester 36-yardline with 59 seconds left and the visitors ran out the clock to secure the victory.
The Foresters are now 3-5 on the season, both overall and in Midwest Conferene play, Knox fell to 0-9 overall and 0-8 in the league. Lake Forest will host St. Norbert College next Saturday afternoon at 1:00.