This past Saturday the Lawrence football team went to Lake Forest to play against evenly matched opponents. So far this season the Vikings ranking hasn’t been set to one course of just winning or losing, with a standing of 2-5, and 1-4 for the Mid-West Conference.
The Vikings started strong; leading the first quarter 7-0 with starting quarterback Ryan Butterfield’s pass to Trevor Spina. Lake Forest came back 13-7, but the Vikings continued to fight and soon regained the lead with 14-13. Lake Forest had the aid of special teams in the first half, and the second quarter ended with them leading 21-14.
O’Mahoney started off the second half with a 30 yard field goal and Lawrence lessened the gap to 21-17. Trailing a bit when coming into the final quarter, the Vikings still came out energized and ready to fight. Then came Lawrence’s big play from our 2nd yard line to their 8 yard line; a 57 yard pass from quarterback Philip Santiago to Cam Boerm. Boerm came in with four catches that day, adding to 85 yards. O’ Mahoney came in again with a 25 yard field goal 20-27.
Lawrence did well after that, slowly fighting across the field with some good first downs. The Vikings tied the game in the last few minutes of the game with a pass to Cole Erickson. Lake Forest’s quarterback Jagan Cleary came in with a pass to Valdivia in the last 30 seconds for the winning touchdown 34-27. It was a very close game all the way up until the end, and both teams played very well. When asked about the game, quarterback Philip Santiago stated, “We could have played better but I think we still fought well as a team…and we were fighting against some adversity out there, the game was a lot closer than people thought it would be.” Donnel Haley also came in with 12 carries for 70 yards for Lawrence. Lake Forest’s Cleary came in with 15 out of 27 completed passes for 208 yards and a touchdown. Santiago led the Vikings with 12 out of 24 completed passes for 172 yards and a touchdown, also running 14 times for 54 yards. Their next game will be this Saturday at Grinnell.
