Senior Cade Brittain, sophomore Jordan Briggs, and freshman Joey Jaquint intercepted passes to help lead the Lake Forest College football team to a 35-0 victory at Knox College on Saturday in the Midwest Conference opener for both teams. It was the Foresters' first shutout in 12 years.
The interceptions by Brittain and Briggs were the first of their careers and Jaquint now has two on the year. Brittain and Jaquint were also among a dozen Foresters with at least four tackles on the day. The unit was led by sophomore linebacker Yanni Zepeda, whose 10 tackles were seven more than his previous career-high. Fellow sophomore linebacker Michael Salazar was next on the squad with eight stops while freshman linebacker Dom Johnson and safety Anthony Rieck added seven apiece.
The offense was led by senior quarterback Jagan Cleary, who completed 22 of 29 passes for 311 yards and a program record-tying five touchdowns. His first scoring pass of the afternoon broke a tie for first place in program history with Pete Scaffidi, who tossed 55 from 2010 through 2012, and he now has 60 in his career. He and Scaffidi are the only Forester signal-callers to throw five touchdowns in a game and each has now accomplished the feat twice.
Senior wide receiver Chris Edomwande accounted for half of Cleary's completions, covered 156 yards, and reached the end zone from 53 yards out on the first possession of the game and from 31 yards to cap off the visitors' second drive. He became the 10th player in school history to surpass 100 career receptions and also moved into 10th place in team annals with 1,440 career receiving yards. Sophomore wideout Chase Allen had five receptions for 87 yards and a touchdown and sophomore wide receiver John Rall caught three passes for 54 yards and a score. Sophomore tailback Alex Adams, who ran for 43 yards on the afternoon, was on the receiving end of Cleary's other touchdown pass and is tied with Rall with a team-high five touchdowns in as many games this season. Rall's touchdown was scored in the second quarter, Adams' in the third, and Allen's in the fourth.
Junior kicker/punter Michael Bounds converted each of the Foresters' extra point attempts and averaged 37.9 yards on his seven punts with two ending up inside the 20-yardline. Lake Forest's performance on special teams was also highlighted by a 43-yard punt return by junior Jeremy Brown.
The Foresters are now 3-2 overall this season while Knox is winless in five contests.
Next Saturday is Homecoming for Lake Forest and the team will host Cornell College at 2:00 p.m.