The Lake Forest College football team jumped out to a 20-0 lead and fought off a late charge by the home team in a 20-14 victory at Wisconsin Lutheran College Saturday night. The Foresters junior quarterback, Anthoney Prestly, scored his first career rushing and passing touchdowns in the second quarter.
Prestly ran for 28 yards and completed 11 passes for 181 in the game. Four of his passes, including a 25-yard touchdown, went to junior wide receiver Willie McIntyre, who finished with a career-high 75 receiving yards. Sophomore receiver Alex Pasiewicz also set career-highs with five receptions and 60 yards.
Sophomore tailback Charlie Quinn led the visitors with 48 yards on the ground and classmate Sam Mulford added 33.
The Forester defense was led by junior cornerback Chris Rantis, who made a career-high nine tackles (all solos) and recorded his first career interception. Junior safety Pat Clark was next on the team with seven tackles and he also intercepted a pass and returned it 23 yards. Senior nose guard Ramel Samuel established a new career-high with six tackles, including one behind the line of scrimmage.
The special teams also played an important role in the victory. Junior kicker Jon Gurchak made a pair of field goals, averaged 37.3 yards on eight punts, and put four of his five kickoffs inside the 5-yardline. One of his punts went out-of-bounds at the five and another was downed at the four. Gurchak now has 10 field goals in his career, passing Mike Olson (1982-85) for fourth in team history. Senior safety/returner Joey Kropp returned the opening kickoff 29 yards and brought a second-quarter punt back 44 yards to set up the team's second touchdown. It also moved him past Keith Hanson for fourth place in program history with 411 career punt return yards. Freshman Mich Coha helped keep Wisconsin Lutheran off the scoreboard by blocking a field gol attempt early in the third quarter.
Gurchak scored Lake Forest's first points of the year on a 37-yard field goal with 3:01 to play in the opening period. Prestly's 6-yard touchdown run capped off a short scoring drive with 77 seconds to play in the first half and he connected on the touchdown pass to McIntyre with just three seconds on the clock. The Foresters also went 38 yards in seven plays on their first possession of the second half, which ended with a 45-yard field goal by Gurchak.
A Lake Forest shutout remained in play until a 10-play, 59-yard touchdown drive by the Warriors in the fourth quarter. An 84-yard touchdown pass on the home team's next possession made the score 20-14 with 7:27 to play.
Lake Forest drove to the Wisconsin Lutheran 25 on the next possession before turning the ball over. The Forester defense forced a three-and-out, however, and the offense converted on third-and-four and fourth-and-one to run out the clock.
It was the second straight season-opening win for the Foresters and the first meeting between these two programs.
Lake Forest will play its home opener against Gustavus Adolphus College next Saturday at 1:00.
