The Forester football team remained in the Midwest Conference title hunt by defeating Monmouth College 31-14 on Saturday.
Trailing 14-9 at halftime, Lake Forest pulled ahead by a one on a 4-yard touchdown run by senior tailback Armani Brown and then made it a 10-point game with scores on back-to-back plays late in the third quarter. Senior Doug Antonucci blocked a punt out the back of the end zone with 53 seconds on the clock and graduate student Damon Bonds returned the ensuing kickoff 74 yards for a touchdown 12 seconds later.
The Foresters put the game out of reach with added another long touchdown, this time a 51-yard run by senior quarterback Tre Stewart with 3:13 remaining in the game.
In addition to his kickoff return touchdown, Bonds carried the ball 21 times for 136 yards to lead Lake Forest's offensive attack. Stewart added 57 yards and Brown 40. Stewart completed six passes for 114 yards and started the game's scoring with a 21-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide receiver Trevor Land.
Freshman kicker Beckham Sonnabend connected on a 35-yard field goal, his fifth of the season, in the second quarter.
Lake Forest sophomore cornerback Damion Miller led all players in the game with 12 tackles while junior safety Trenton Brail added eight. Senior defensive end Alex Bendler accounted for two of the team's six tackles for loss and now ranks eighth in program history with 31.5 in his career.
The Foresters did not commit a turnover while forcing two. The first was a fumble forced by senior linebacker Javan Ah Quin on 2nd-and-goal from the Lake Forest 1-yardline in the second quarter and the second was an interception by sophomore linebacker Nik Rieck late in the fourth.
The victory was the 80th for Jim Catanzaro in his 14 seasons as the Foresters' head coach, tying the record set by the legendary Mike Dau '58.
Lake Forest improved to 7-1 overall and 6-1 in the MWC while Monmouth fell to 6-2 overall and 6-1 in the league.
The Foresters will continue their pursuit of back-to-back conference titles at Beloit College next Saturday while Monmouth hosts undefeated Ripon College.
