Lake Zurich bears down on Lake Forest

Lake Zurich senior defensive end John Brewer stands 6-3 and has an equally wide wingspan, so it's pretty hard to miss No. 49 on the football field. Friday night at Lake Forest, Brewer was actually hard to find - or at least No. 49 was tough to find.

Brewer forgot his No. 49 jersey at home and had to wear No. 87. Regardless of the number, Brewer and the Bears' defense came up big against the high-powered Lake Forest offense. A week after the Scouts amassed over 600 yards and 65 points against Wauconda; Lake Forest was only able to manage 17 in a 48-17 loss to Lake Zurich in a North Suburban Conference Lake Division contest.

Lake Zurich has won back-to-back games after losing a pair in September and is 4-3 overall, 3-2 in league play. Lake Forest falls to 4-3 overall and 1-3 in the division.

"We gave up some plays and (Lake Forest) made some plays," Lake Zurich coach Bryan Stortz said. "As the game went a long the kids understood how Lake Forest was going to attack us and where they needed to be and I thought the kids performed well."

Brewer and the Lake Zurich defense made its presence felt only the third play from scrimmage for Lake Forest. As the Scouts set up a screen pass, quarterback Thomas Rees found big No. 87 right between the eight and the seven. Brewer returned the interception 10 yards setting up the first of three Andrew Maloney touchdown runs.

Maloney took it in from 10, 8 and 3 yards and finished with 143 yards on 16 carries.

"I read screen and (Rees) threw it right to me," Brewer said. "I don't know what (Rees) was looking at or if he even saw me."

Rees and the Scouts answered with a long touchdown drive but after the Scouts tied it 7-7, it was all Lake Zurich.

"We needed to come out and make plays tonight when it counted and put points on the board," Stortz said. "I think our kids did a nice job of that."

While the air was the mode of preference for the Lake Forest offense, the Bears chose the ground. Lake Zurich rushed for 373 yards on the night. To go with Maloney's 143 yard effort, Tanner Witt rushed for a pair of scores and Tom Flaherty ran for 119 yards on 11 carries.

Rees, who passed for more than 400 yards in a 65-point outburst against Wauconda a week ago, threw for 316 yards but was picked off twice by the Bears' defense.

"I thought we started the game well on offense and defense," said Lake Forest coach Chuck Spagnoli. "We made a couple of errors there in the second quarter and adjustments then become hard when you are playing a team as good as (Lake Zurich) is."