Football: Batavia bounces back to top Lake Forest

Updated: November 5, 2011 8:22PM

A week after nearly being upset by a 16 seed, top-seeded Batavia left nothing to chance in a 31-17 victory over Lake Forest Saturday afternoon in Batavia.

The Bulldogs (11-0) held Scouts running back Owen Williams to just two yards rushing on 14 carries while limiting Lake Forest to minus-8 rushing yards and 105 total yards as a team.

“Coming into the game, (Williams) was 60 percent of their offense,” said Batavia linebacker and fullback Alec Lyons. “Our goal was to come in and shut him down and we did a great job doing that.”

Batavia created 11 plays of negative yardage, led by Lyons’ one sack and two tackles for loss.

“Owen struggled today but people aren’t stupid – they know who he is and they game plan against him,” Lake Forest coach Chuck Spagnoli said of Batavia’s emphasis on Williams and the Scouts’ rush game. “When they do that we have to be successful in other areas.”

On offense, Lyons (33 yards) rushed for three touchdowns on eight carries. Anthony Thielk led Batavia with 50 yards and a score on 11 rushes. Batavia quarterback Noel Gaspari was 10-for-19 for 142 yards.

Batavia jumped out to a 10-0 lead through the middle of the second quarter before a shanked punt gave Lake Forest prime field position at the Bulldogs’ 11. Scouts quarterback Jordan Beck then hit Charles Moss on the next play for a score to make it 10-7 heading into the half – despite the fact Lake Forest had rushed for minus-21 yards in the opening half and had just 30 yards of offense.

Playing with a brisk wind in the third quarter, Lake Forest (8-3) scored 10 more points. A blocked Batavia punt set up a 30-yard touchdown pass from Beck (13-for-29, 113 yards) to Liam Howe. A Baylor Broughton 26-yard field goal put Lake Forest up 17-10.

“I thought (Spagnoli) was considering kicking off (into the wind) in the third quarter – I know it sounds stupid but I thought he might do it so they could have the wind in the fourth quarter,” Batavia coach Dennis Piron said. “And when they didn’t, I was like ‘if we could just hold our own, and if it’s a game, if we don’t get too goofy here, we should be all right.’ And we were.”

Then in the fourth, with the wind at their backs, the Bulldogs scored three unanswered touchdowns while forcing four Lake Forest punts and a turnover on downs.

Lyons tied the game with a two-yard run before Thielk scored the eventual game-winner from a yard out with 6:28 to play. In the deciding frame, Batavia ran just five plays from its own half of the field.

“It’s always a game of field position,” Spagnoli said. “When you’re in that position you’ve got tom ake plays on defense to turn that around and we just didn’t do that consistently.”

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