The Lake Forest College football team fell 15-7 at Carroll University on Saturday. The Forester defense intercepted three passes on the day, including the first two of junior lineman Casey Flynn's career.
Junior safety Luke Butts also picked off a pass for the Foresters and his 11 tackles was tied with senior linebacker Anthony Garetto for team-high honors. Among Garetto's stops were nine solos, including a sack. The Lake Forest defense surrendered a season-low 304 total yards, including just 110 in the second half, and had four tackles for loss.
Sophomore wide receiver Austin Sobey accounted for the visitors' only touchdown on the team's second possession. Sobey's first career score and the extra point gave the visitors a 7-6 lead with 3:32 left on the clock.
Carroll's next possession ended when Forester sophomore Joe Stella blocked the Pioneers' 21-yard field goal attempt. It was the second block on the day for Lake Forest. Junior defensive lineman Kenneth Clady Mason turned away the home team's first extra point attempt.
The Pioneers regained the lead on their next drive, however. After an interception the home team traveled 40 yards in seven plays, finishing with a pair of 1-yard runs to reach the end zone with 9:31 to play in the first half. Carroll also tacked on a safety 61 seconds later to close out the scoring.
A pair of interceptions by Flynn and another by Butts ended the first three Carroll drives of the second half, but the visitors were unable to capitalize on the turnovers.
"Our defense had its best game of the season," commented Forester head coach Jim Catanzaro. "This was the most complete game that unit played. We wanted to come out and fight them for every yard in the run game and did that. It was also the first game that we were able to force multiple interceptions. Casey [Flynn] picked off two passes and stood out as a guy that was everywhere on the field.
"Offensively, we were able to run the ball with moderate success. We really struggled on third downs after two weeks of pretty solid play in that category. Our offensive line was a little dinged up and we had some issues there in the passing game. I am confident that we can get those guys healed up and back to where they had been performing up to this point."
Lake Forest's Homecoming Game is next Saturday at 1:30 p.m. against Beloit College.