Monmouth Hands Foresters First Loss of the Season
Pickering records career-high 17 tackles
  

Omar Pickering had 17
tackles, including 11 solos.

The Fighting Scots controlled the ball for nearly 40 minutes and ran 78 offensive plays, 29 more than Lake Forest. Junior Omar Pickering (Mount Vernon, NY/Port Chester) led the Foresters with a career-high 17 tackles while freshman Ryan Gallegos (Plantation, FL/St. Thomas Aquinas) pitched in 10, including two for loss. Sophomore defensive back Keith Hanson (Fairfax, VA/Chantilly) deflected two passes and recorded his first career interception.

Offensively, senior quarterback Don Lackey (Lindenhurst, IL/Antioch) connected on 15 of 30 pass attempts for 176 yards, two interceptions, and a touchdown. He also ran for a score. Junior slot A.J. Rodino (Elkhart, IN/Elkhart Memorial) caught his first career touchdown pass. Junior wide receiver Nick Hildreth (Lombard, IL/Willowbrook) gained 42 yards on a team-high five receptions and junior slot Marty Quinn (Evergreen Park, IL/Mt. Carmel) caught three passes and led the squad with 51 receiving yards. Freshman running back Anthony Guli (Buffalo Grove, IL/Stevenson) was the Foresters' leading rusher with 40 yards on nine carries.

Monmouth got on the scoreboard first when quarterback Rob Purlee hit Tyler Snyder for a 60 yard touchdown pass. After Pickering blocked the visitors' point after attempt, freshman Anthony Gebhart (Addison, IL/Addison Driscoll) returned the ensuing kickoff 45 yards before being forced out of bounds at the Fighting Scots' 36. Following a Monmouth penalty and three consecutive Guli runs totaling 25 yards, Lackey plunged one yard into the end zone and the extra point gave the home team a 7-6 advantage with 2:59 left in the first period.

Monmouth regained the lead at the 6:58 mark in the second quarter when Purlee connected on his second touchdown pass of the afternoon. After a successful two-point conversion attempt and a Lake Forest punt, the visitors struck again on a nine-yard touchdown carry by running back Oscar Scott, who ran for 32 of his game-high 118 rushing yards on the drive. The score put Monmouth ahead 21-7 with 1:21 remaining in the half.

The Foresters next possession started at their own 31 yard line with only 75 seconds left in the period. After an incompletion, Lackey found Hildreth for six yards and Quinn for 18 and a first down at the Monmouth 45. Lackey found Hildreth again on second-and-ten for a 26-yard gain to the visitors' 19. Following a Fighting Scots' time out, Lackey hit Rodino in the end zone, cutting the deficit to 21-14.

Neither team scored in the second half. Monmouth was able to control the ball for nearly 20 minutes and keep Lackey and the rest of the Forester offense off the field. Each team had just five second-half drives. Monmouth's final possession started with 6:15 remaining and the Scots were able to run out the clock.

Lake Forest will look to rebound at Knox College (2-2, 1-2 MWC) next Saturday (October 11). The Foresters also hope to avenge last year's 35-31 defeat at Knox, the team's only Midwest Conference defeat of 2002.

Box Score