Lake Forest Prevails in Season Finale at Ripon 
Lackey breaks school's career passing record
  

Don Lackey is now the school's all-time leading passer.

An interception and three punts ended the first four Forester drives of the afternoon. The visitors' defense, however, forced the Red Hawks to punt once and turn the ball over on downs twice inside the Lake Forest 5-yard line before finally surrendering the game's first touchdown, an 18-yard completion from Bob Faulds to Will Springer. The extra point attempt was blocked.

The Foresters responded with their first scoring drive of the game. Senior quarterback Don Lackey (Lindenhurst, IL/Antioch) completed a 30-yard pass to junior slot receiver Marty Quinn (Evergreen Park, IL/Mt. Carmel) for the score and junior Mike Carter (Arlington Heights, IL/St. Viator) connected on the extra point to give Lake Forest a 7-6 lead.

Faulds hit Tim Roehrig for a 56-yard touchdown pass on Ripon's next possession. The two-point conversion attempt failed and the home team's lead remained 12-7.

After an interception and a Red Hawk punt, which was partially blocked by junior Omar Pickering (Mount Vernon, NY/Port Chester), the Foresters had the ball at their own 49 with 1:14 remaining in the first half. Lackey completed passes of 24, 7, and 9 yards to reach the Ripon 11 and, after an incompletion, threw a touchdown pass to his fourth different receiver of the drive, junior Nick Hildreth (Lombard, IL/Willowbrook). The fake extra point attempt failed and Lake Forest took a 13-12 lead into the locker room at halftime. Hildreth finished the game with six catches for 77 yards and led the team with 41 receptions for 603 yards and four touchdowns this year. With 116 catches in his career, he will enter next season just three catches shy of the school record.

Ripon regained the lead on Roerig's second touchdown reception of the game on the first possession of the third quarter. The Red Hawks were once again unsuccessful on the two-point conversion attempt.

Lackey three his third touchdown pass of the game, a 77-yard bomb to freshman Anthony Gebhart (Addison, IL/Addison Driscoll), on the Foresters' first play from scrimmage in the period. With the completion Lackey also passed Avelino Cortez '87 and moved into first place in the school record books for passing yardage. He finished the game with 288 yards and completed his three-year Forester career with 5,556 yards. Lackey also ranks first in school history with 1,000 career passing attempts and second with 477 completions and 37 touchdown passes. Carter's extra point attempt once again went through the uprights and Lake Forest led 20-18.

After being stopped inside the Forester 5-yard line twice in the first quarter, Ripon elected to kick the field goal on fourth-and goal from the visitors' 2 in the third period to take a 21-20 lead.

Lake Forest marched right back down the field to retake the lead. Freshman running back Anthony Guli (Buffalo Grove, IL/Stevenson) carried the ball eight times for 50 yards on the drive, including a 3-yard touchdown run with 12:21 remaining in the contest. Guli finished the game with 22 carries for 103 yards and the season with a team-high 582 yards and 11 scores, which tied for the third-highest rushing touchdown total in school history.

After forcing Ripon to punt, the Foresters took their largest lead of the game (30-21) on a 32-yard field goal by Carter, who set up the score with a 24-yard pass reception.

The home team struck again on a 64-yard touchdown pass from Faulds to Jacob Banks, but the extra point attempt was blocked once again and Lake Forest led 30-27. Ripon recovered a Guli fumble at its own 15 but turned the ball back over to the Foresters when senior safety Pat Gillihan (Leawood, KS/Blue Valley North) picked off a Faulds pass at the 50-yard line with 2:32 to play. Three Guli carries netted 11 yards and the one firwst down Lake Forest needed to run out the clock.

In addition to the blocked punt, Pickering also tallied 18 tackles (4 solos, 14 assists) in the game. Sophomore cornerback Keith Hanson (Fairfax, VA/Chantilly) had 14 stops, Gillihan had 13, and freshman linebacker Ryan Gallegos (Plantation, FL/St. Thomas Aquinas) added a dozen. Junior defensive end David Bleitner (St. Louis, MO/Vianney) had a pair of sacks and added two more tackles behind the line of scrimmage. He set single-season school records with 15.5 sacks and 26 tackles for loss this year.

The Foresters will lose 14 players to graduation in the spring. The group has won 23 games in their careers, matching the total of the two best four-year spans (1938-41 and 1983-86) in school history.

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