No. 5, undefeated Libertyville falls at Lake Forest in shootout

LAKE FOREST – Libertyville was aiming to keep its undefeated season going when the fifth-ranked Class 6A team in the state visited Lake Forest Friday night in North Suburban Conference football action.

They couldn’t, falling 42-35.

But despite getting off to a great start with a 21-7 lead early on, the Wildcats could not contain a very impressive Scouts’ offense which rolled off 35 unanswered points to take a 42-21 lead late in the third quarter.

Libertyville (7-1, 5-1) put together a late comeback to cut the lead to 42-35 with 10:21 to play, but Lake Forest (6-2, 4-2) held on by stopping the Wildcats on a fourth-and-2 play from the Scouts’ 17-yard-line with just over a minute to play.

Trailing 42-21, quarterback Quinn Schambow (30 for 42, 480 yards) hit Blaise LaVista (11 catches for 230 yards) with a 19-yard touchdown pass to cut the lead to 42-28 on the last play of the third quarter.

Then Libertyville’s Tommy Buenik made a great defensive play by stripping the ball from Lake Forest’s Marty Hippel (133 yards on 18 carries) near midfield. Two plays later, LaVista caught a 41-yard TD pass to cut the lead to 42-35.

The Wildcats’ last play was a pass to the end zone that was incomplete on fourth-and-2 setting off an early celebration by the Scouts on their senior night.

“They made some really good plays and we made some mistakes so when you play a good team that’s going to happen,” said Libertyville coach Mike Jones. “As I said all along I have a lot of respect for them, they’re well coached, and we put ourselves in some bad situations.”

Schambow was really impressive with 231 passing yards in the first quarter alone, including a 22-yard TD pass to LaVista, and a 14-yard TD pass to Sam Seth for a quick 14-0 lead.

Lake Forest’s Danny Van Camp (22 for 30, 299 yards) also shined as his 10-yard keeper cut the lead to 14-7. Seth’s 8-yard TD catch made the score 21-7, but Hippel’s 95-yard kickoff return for the touchdown quickly cut the lead to 21-14.

The Wildcats could not stop the Scouts’ momentum as a 34-yard field goal by Timotei Dan and a 38-yard TD pass from Van Camp to Charlie Markee gave the hosts a 24-21 halftime lead.

Dan added a 25-yard field goal before Jack Burger caught TD passes of 28 and 20 yards with a defender all over him before Markee added a 2-point conversion catch for the 42-21 lead.

Libertyville’s Stevan Gavric had eight receptions for 122 yards while Schambow was sacked 5 times for negative 25 yards to go along with two key Lake Forest interceptions.

“We showed some grit. We were down 21 points and we had a chance to tie it with a minute some left,” added Jones, whose team will host Warren to close out the regular season.

“It was good that we showed that, but we’ve got to learn stuff from this game going forward and we’ve got a lot of season left.”

https://www.dailyherald.com/20241018/prep-football/lake-forest-hands-libertyville-its-first-loss/