The Lake Forest College football team was defeated 29-22 at Beloit College on Saturday (October 3). The Foresters fell to 0-5 overall on the season and 0-4 in Midwest Conference play. The Buccaneers raised their overall record to 4-1 and league mark to 3-1.
The game started off extremely well for the Foresters. Sophomore safety Luke Butts (Warrensburg, Ill./Warrensburg) picked off his second pass of the year on the third play from scrimmage and junior quarterback Geoff Sobey (Mt. Prospect, Ill./Prospect) connected with senior wide receiver Dan Carter (Arlington Heights, Ill./St. Viator) on a 44-yard touchdown pass just two plays later. A failed extra point attempt left the visitors with a 6-0 lead.
The teams combined for just 13 yards on the game's next six possessions. Beloit then put together a 10-play, 56-yard scoring drive and made the extra point to take a 7-6 lead.
The home team capped off a 9-play, 67-yard drive with a 20-yard touchdown pass with 2:31 to play in the half, giving the Buccaneers a 14-6 lead.
Lake Forest then went 60 yards in 12 plays, including a 9-yard touchdown pass from Sobey to Carter. The two collaborated again on a two-point conversion to tie the score at 14. The touchdown was the school record-tying 33rd of Carter's career and the two-point conversion gave him 200 points, the most in team history. After setting one career-high with 13 receptions and matching another with 167 yards in the game, Carter has now caught 37 passes against the Buccaneers for 512 yards and eight touchdowns. Upon hearing that Carter had become the program's all-time leading scorer, head coach Jim Catanzaro stated, "Dan continues to put his name all over the school record book. The numbers he has put up in his career here are amazing and still growing."
The game remained 14-14 until the home team scored on a 69-yard pass play on its second drive of the third quarter. A two-point conversion made the score 22-14.
The Foresters responded by driving nearly the length of the field. The 8-minute, 46-second possession was kept alive even when a Sobey pass was intercepted at the goal line, thanks to a fumble on the return recovered by Carter at the Beloit 18. However, a fourth-and-four play at the 12 was unsuccessul and the Bucs took over on downs.
A Beloit punt and another unsuccessful fourth-down play for Lake Forest set up the Bucs' final score, a 23-yard pass play. The extra point left the Foresters behind 29-14.
A personal foul penalty and six consecutive completions by Sobey, including a 5-yard touchdown pass to sophomore tight end Chris Carter (Arlington Heights, Ill./St. Viator), pulled the visitors to within nine points. Sobey connected with junior wide receiver Pat Jarvis (Chicago, Ill./Mt. Carmel) for the two-point conversion. and trailed 29-22 with 6:19 to play in the contest. Jarvis had six receptions for 66 yards in the game.
The visitors were unable to get the ball back, however, as Beloit converted on three third downs and ran out the clock.
Sobey set career-highs with 25 completions, 48 attempts, and 271 passing yards. He also threw three touchdown passes for the second time in his career.
A pair of defensive backs, Butts and freshman Fritzner Francois (Miami, Fla./Miami Norland) led the Lake Forest defense with eight tackles apiece. Senior linebacker Donovan Baldridge (St. Louis, Mo./Chaminade) recorded the visitors' only sack of the contest and sophomore defensive end Casey Flynn (Morristown, N.J./Morristown) had a 15-yard return of a second-quarter fumble.
Catanzaro commented on the Foresters' play on both sides of the ball after the game. "Today we did something on defense that we hadn't done all season," he began. "We gave up long plays and did not make them work for their scores. Offensively, we need to hang on to the football. It is near impossible to win games when you commit three turnovers. The two positives in this game were the tenacity and determination the team displayed in the comeback effort and that we had our highest scoring output so far this season."
Next weekend is Homecoming at Lake Forest and the team will host Lawrence University at 1:30 p.m. A live video webcast of the game will be available at www.pennatlantic.com.
