On this day, Stevenson reigns

And then there were none.

Stevenson did its part to bring even more parity to the North Suburban Conference Lake Division on Saturday.

In a pounding rain that let up for only a short time near the end of the game, the Patriots themselves did quite a bit of pounding on previously unbeaten Lake Forest en route to a 33-0 victory on homecoming in Lincolnshire.

Now, there are no unbeaten teams left in the Lake Division.

The victory is the first of the season for the Patriots (1-2) and gets them off to a 1-0 start in the Lake. Stevenson opened the season by losing to two quality teams in Loyola and Glenbrook South by a total of 15 points.

"It was good to get the monkey off our back," Stevenson coach Bill Mitz said. "This was a good team win."

Meanwhile, Lake Forest, which had averaged 35.5 points in its first two games, drops to 2-1 overall (0-1 Lake).

"It was so important for us to win this game," said Stevenson running back Mark Weisman, who rolled up 4 touchdowns - his career-best for a single game. "The first two weeks, we had a tough time. We didn't execute too great. We knew that we had to move on from that and today was the first step.

"Today, we came out strong. The line was unbelievable and I just ran through the holes that they gave me."

Clearly, the Stevenson offensive line was in a giving mood.

It paved the way for a total of 251 rushing yards, 120 of which came from Weisman alone. He carried the ball 19 times and scored three 1-yard touchdowns and a 37-yard touchdown.

By halftime, thanks to two Weisman touchdowns and a 15-yard touchdown run by Joshua Vravick, Stevenson sat on a comfy 21-0 lead.

"They did a great job," Lake Forest coach Chuck Spagnoli said of Stevenson. "They ran through our defense. Up front, they handled us reasonably well. We didn't tackle well either."

But the Patriots did.

In fact, the defense did just about everything well in making an offense that looked prolific in the first two weeks look downright ordinary.

Lake Forest quarterback Thomas Rees, who was averaging about 300 passing yards a game through the first two weeks, completed 12 of 28 passes for just 70 yards. He was also intercepted three times - twice by Erick King and once by Brad Backer.

The Stevenson defensive line and linebackers put consistent pressure on Rees and the secondary made Rees' favorite target - David Head - hard to find. Head, who was getting about 10 catches per game, made only 4 receptions for 24 yards.

On the ground, the Scouts were even less impressive, mustering just 38 total rushing yards.

It all added up to just 6 first downs on the game for Lake Forest. Stevenson, meanwhile, had 27, thanks not only to the rushing game, but to some nice completions by quarterback Zach Wujcik. He tallied 115 passing yards on 8 completions.

"Just because Stevenson was 0-2 heading into this game doesn't reflect what they are as a team. They did a great job today on defense," Rees said. "And things just weren't clicking for us."