Senior wide receiver Alex Pasiewicz started the game with a kickoff return from end zone to end zone and added three receiving scores to help lead the Lake Forest College football team to a 55-13 victory at Cornell College on Saturday.
The kickoff return for a touchdown by Pasiewicz started two yards into the end zone but officially goes down as 100 yards. The program record of 101 yards was set by Harley Wahl nearly 60 years ago. Pasiewicz also caught five passes for 113 yards and three touchdowns, including a 70-yarder in the second quarter. It was his second straight game with at least 100 receiving yards and he tallied 268 all-purpose yards on the day.
Forester senior running back Joey Valdivia also scored three touchdowns on Saturday and he finished the contest with 165 yards on 19 carries. He reached the end zone on a 3-yard run in the first quarter, a 59-yarder in the second, and from three yards out in the third. Valdivia now has 535 rushing yards and nine total touchdowns in just three games this season and he is averaging 8.1 yards per carry on the year.
The visitors' other score was a 13-yard touchdown run by senior running back Charlie Quinn, who finished with 35 rushing yards and four catches for 47 yards on the day.
Lake Forest sophomore quarterback Jagan Cleary turned in another stellar performance, completing 17 of 28 passes for 244 yards and three touchdowns with no interceptions. Cleary has completed 66.3 percent of his pass attempts so far this season for 847 yards and eight scores. He has not thrown an interception and his pass efficiency rating of 172.33 would easily be the best in a season in program history.
Freshman linebacker John Laponte led the Lake Forest defense with eight tackles, including seven solos, and he accounted for two of the team's nine tackles for loss on the day. Junior linebacker Michael Cole was next on the team with seven stops. The Foresters allowed the Rams to convert on just three of 17 third-down chances and limited the home team to 348 yards in the contest.
Junior kicker Charles Courtney made seven extra points in the game, one shy of the team record. He is 17-for-19 on extra points this season.
Lake Forest scored the game's first five touchdowns and led 35-6 at halftime. The Foresters reached the end zone three more times in the third quarter and neither team scored in the fourth.
The victory is the Foresters' third in as many contests this season while Cornell fell to 1-2. It was the Midwest Conference opener for both teams.
Lake Forest will host Monmouth College next Saturday afternoon at 1:00. It will be Benny Watters Community Day and the Foresters will be wearing pink as part of the league's Playing for a Cure initiative.
