Rout of Lawrence Ensures Foresters' Second Straight Winning Season
Team's first back-to-back winning seasons since 1985-86
  

Matthew Mahaney (top) and Devin Furlong scored their first career touchdowns. 

After more than 14 minutes of scoreless football, Lake Forest found the end zone twice in a 15-second span. Freshman running back Anthony Guli (Buffalo Grove, IL/Stevenson) scored the first of his two touchdowns on the day on a one-yard run. He finished the afternoon with 24 carries for 118 yards, including 53 on that drive. Junior cornerback Chris Polizzi (Great Barrington, MA/Williston) forced the Vikings' return man to fumble the ensuing kickoff and senior safety Pat Gillihan (Leawood, KS/Blue Valley North) picked up the loose ball and sprinted 25 yards for the touchdown.

Freshman quarterback Matthew Mahaney (West Chicago, IL/Addison Driscoll) orchestrated a pair of touchdown drives in the second quarter. Freshman tailback Devin Furlong (Lake Worth, FL/Cardinal Newman), who had nine carries for 84 yards in the game, made the score 21-0 after scoring his first career touchdown on an eight-yard run and reaching the end zone again for the two-point conversion. Mahaney threw the first touchdown pass of his career on the next Forester possession, a 53-yard strike to junior A.J. Rodino (Elkhart, IN/Elkhart Memorial).

The visitors scored for the fifth time in the half when senior defensive end Tom Starnicky (Oak Lawn, IL/Marist) picked off a pass and returned it 41 yards for the score. Guli ran in the two-point conversion. Starnicky also ended Lawrence's final possession before intermission when he recovered a fumble. The teams went into the locker rooms for halftime with the Foresters leading 36-0.

Lake Forest scored its final touchdown of the day on its second possession of the third quarter. Senior quarterback Don Lackey (Lindenhurst, IL/Antioch) connected with Rodino on a 23-yard completion to the Vikings' one. Guli took care of the final yard on his tenth rushing touchdown of the season, the fourth-highest single-season total in the program's history.

Junior safety Drew Holman (Morris, IL/ Morris) led the defense with eight tackles and three passes defensed. Freshman linebacker Louis Bertuca (Chicago, IL/Fenwick) and junior defensive end David Bleitner (St. Louis, MO/Vianney) each recorded a pair of sacks. Bleitner's 12.5 sacks on the season are a school record and, with 19 tackles for loss on the year, he trails the mark in that category by just one.

The Foresters will host St. Norbert College (9-0, 8-0 MWC) next Saturday (November 8) at 1:00 p.m. Lake Forest shared last year's MWC Championship with the Green Knights, who have already clinched at least a share of this year's title and the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Playoffs.

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