Lake Forest shuts out Antioch

LAKE FOREST — After sitting out last week’s game with a badly torn elbow, Lake Forest High running back Greg Friedman was raring to go against the Antioch Sequoits on Saturday. Friedman shredded the visitors for 235 yards on 23 carries and scored three touchdowns as the 5-0 Scouts dominated this North Suburban Conference crossover contest with a 31-0 win.

Antioch is now 2-3 on the year.

Playing for the second time on the new Varsity Field artificial turf, the unbeaten Scouts were without a key offensive weapon for the third time this season. Wide receiver Kevin Finney missed the opening game of the year, Friedman missed last week’s win over Mundelein, and Finney, the leading receiver in Lake County despite missing a game, was again sidelined against Antioch.

“His foot was bothering him today,” said Lake Forest head coach Chuck Spagnoli, “so we thought we’d sit him out.”

Spagnoli said the foot in question was not a football injury to his knowledge and that he expected Finney to be back for the team’s home game next Saturday against Warren.

Finney’s absence did not seem to affect Lake Forest as much as the loss to injury of starting quarterback Matt Romani hurt Antioch. With backup Ken Karagiorgas at the helm, the Scouts’ swarming defense keyed on Antioch’s junior speedster, running back Cameron White. The third-leading ground-gainer in Lake County was held to just 6 yards rushing for the game on nine carries. In a bit of trickery, White started the game from behind center but threw an interception to Trenton Moore of Lake Forest on the first snap of the contest, setting the tone for the remainder of the day.

The Lake Forest defenders held Antioch to a total of 1 yard in offense in the first half, while the Scouts were busy scoring on a 19-yard field goal by Steven Roth and touchdown runs of 30 and 4 yards by Friedman to take a 17-0 halftime lead. Sophomore quarterback Thomas Rees connected on a 17-yard touchdown to Andrew Carpenter in the third quarter, and Friedman followed a Miles Smith interception by rambling 59 yards for the final score of the game.

Following the game, Spagnoli lauded the work of defensive linemen Addison Sadewater, Scott Covert, Nick Garoufalis and Alex Baraniewski for putting the Antioch offense on its heels all game long.

An interception by junior Brian O’Callaghan in the end zone preserved the shutout at game’s end when Antioch appeared ready to score on the Lake Forest second string.