The Lake Forest College football team was defeated 20-10 at St. Norbert College on Saturday, leaving both teams with a league-best 8-1 record in Midwest Conference play. Senior defensive lineman Jake Rotkvich led the Foresters with eight tackles, including 4.5 tackles for loss and a pair of sacks.
Rotkvich finished the season with 7.5 sacks, which is tied for the seventh-highest total in program history.
The Forester defense registered 13 tackles for loss and five sacks in the contest. Sophomore linebacker John Preston finished just behind Rotkvich with seven tackles and junior cornerback Ed Dobernig was next with six.
The visitors' offense was led by senior quarterback Pete Scaffidi, who completed 25 of 47 passes for 234 yards, a touchdown, and an interception. His 1,900 passing yards on the year ranks ninth in team history and he finished his career second in team annals with 5,514 passing yards, 42 shy of the school record. The program's all-time leader with 55 career touchdown passes also holds career marks for completion percentage (59.8) and quarterback efficiency rating (132.5) and he ranks second in school history with 478 completions and fourth with 765 passing attempts.
Scaffidi's favorite target this season, senior wide receiver Austin Sobey, caught eight passes for 113 yards in the game. His 57 receptions on the year rank ninth in team history and his 845 yards are seventh. He finished his career with 141 catches, the third-most in program history, and his 1,932 receiving yards ranks fourth and his 19 touchdown catches tied-for-third.
Forester senior Al Mitchell had just 27 yards rushing but caught nine passes for 77 yards on Saturday. He completed the season with 865 yards on the gound, which ranks seventh in team history, and he ranks fifth on team annals with 1,932 yards in his career. He is also tied for fourth with 15 rushing touchdowns and his 19 total touchdowns is tied with Sobey for sixth.
The only touchdown for the visitors came on a 6-yard pass from Scaffidi to senior wideout Rocky Al-Mutawa with 54 seconds to play in the contest. The extra point by freshman Jon Gurchak was his 28th of the season, which ranks third in team history. Gurchak also connected on a 38-yard field goal to put the Foresters on the scoreboard in the third quarter.
St. Norbert started fast, scoring the game's first points on a 1-yard run after less than two-and-a-half minutes of play. The Green Knights scored another touchdown with 6:45 to play in the opening quarter and tacked on a field goal with 2:24 remaining in the first. After the Foresters' field goal in the third quarter, the home team responded with a three-pointer of its own with 7:59 on the game clock.
Lake Forest actually out-gained St. Norbert 241-176 on the afternoon.
The Foresters finished the season with an 8-2 overall record, matching the 2004 team for the second-highest win total by a Lake Forest squad. The loss snapped an eight-game winning streak, the program's longest single-season run. The longest streak in school history spanned nine games from 1937-39.
The Green Knights also finished 8-2 overall and their victory over the Foresters, coupled with an Illinois College loss at Carroll University, advanced St. Norbert to the NCAA Playoffs.
In addition to Scaffidi, Sovey, Mitchell, and Al-Mutawa, Lake Forest will lose senior safety Dominick Campagna, wide receivers Jesus Alvarez and Justin Novak, defensive backs Aidan Price and Michael Dotson, linebacker Joe Stella, offensive lineman Will Savor, and defensive lineman Edwin Esperanza to graduation in May.
