Scouts Escape Harlem with 13-8 win, advance to postseason quarterfinals
Up next is Prairie Ridge in the elite eight of the IHSA playoffs
With Lake Forest holding a precarious 13-8 lead late in its Class 6A second round playoff game Saturday against Harlem High School, a time out was called.
The Scouts had the ball on the Huskies’ 47-yard line, one yard needed to reset the chains and a new set of downs. With the clock under two minutes, that would likely mean the end of the game and a Lake Forest victory.
During the time out, offensive coordinator Phil DeWald asked his offensive unit, that had struggled to move the ball consistently against a physical Harlem defense, one simple question.
“He said to me ‘Watson, can we get that yard?’” senior offensive lineman Watson Allen said of DeWald. “‘Can we get that quarterback sneak?’ I said, ‘Yeah, we got it.’”
Coming out of the time out, the Scouts lined up and Allen, the center, snapped the ball to senior quarterback Leo Scheidler, who took the snap under center and ran behind Allen and his offensive line and got one more yard than needed. With Harlem out of time outs, the Scouts were able to ice the game, running a few more plays before victory formation sealed the 13-8 win.
There is a cliche used to describe playoff football. Often, the team that looks the prettiest is sent home. Style points go unrewarded. The most tried and true mantra? Survive and advance by any means necessary.
That’s just what the Scouts did Saturday in Machesney Park.
“I thought they played with great effort and great heart,” Coach Spagnoli said. “We were resilient and there were many times when things did not go our way and took momentum back against a team that had won nine in a row. Good for our kids.”
Lake Forest earns a spot in the Class 6A quarterfinals and a match up against Prairie Ridge. That game will be played Saturday, November 13 at Varsity Field.
There were plenty of moments in the Harlem game that tested the Scouts’ resolve. They passed those tests, relying on a familiar formula to break through and get to the next round.
Throughout 10 played games in 2021, the Scouts (9-2 overall) have rarely trailed opponents. Lake Forest has gotten up on teams with an explosive offense and opportunistic defense that may give up yards, but not touchdowns. The Harlem game was no different.
Saturday, the game remained deadlocked at zero until late in the first half. Senior running back Jahari Scott, bottled up on inside runs by the Huskies defense for 4.3 yards per carry up to that point, ran off the left edge and down the Scouts sideline for a 67-yard touchdown. The score made it 7-0 Scouts with 1:30 left in the first half.
“All week long we talked about how they were going to clog up the middle of the line,” Scott said.
In the second half, the Scouts ran just seven plays (one that didn’t count due to a penalty) on their first two possessions. The defense had kept Harlem out of the end zone and when the Huskies took over on their own 36-yard line after a Scouts punt, they had not advanced closer than the Lake Forest 35-yard line all game.
But Harlem moved the ball into Lake Forest territory behind 225-pound bullhorn running back Adrian Palos and had a 1st and 10 on the Scouts 39-yard line with under three minutes left in the third quarter. A fourth down conversion got them to the 22-yard line, then two plays later a touchdown pass and two-point conversion found the Huskies with a narrow 8-7 lead with 1:32 remaining in the third.
“The poor kid slipped on the coverage (on the fourth down conversion) and the quarterback made the adjustment and we screwed up on the touchdown,” Spagnoli said.
As has happened frequently this fall 2021 season, it didn’t take long for Lake Forest to regain the lead. Three plays in fact.
Scheidler kept the ball on an option play and ran 65 yards for the go-ahead touchdown and 13-8 Scouts lead. Again, explosive plays in the run game were the savior for an offense that completed only two passes in the second half (five yard completion to Shep Graf, three yards to Scott) and five in the entire game (for 26 yards).
But those completions did do enough to loosen up a Huskies defense that overloaded the box with defenders for most of the game.
“It gave us a little more space (to run),” Scott said.
In the fourth quarter, both units –– offense and defense –– did what must be done to win playoff games. They played complimentary football.
Harlem took over on its five-yard line with 7:32 remaining in the game.
A 39-yard pass play to Palos got the Huskies into Lake Forest territory. A few more Huskies runs got them to the 25-yard line of the Scouts. But an illegal block penalty wiped out another gain and put the the Huskies in second and long. After a time out, the Huskies had the match up they wanted –– a slot receiver lined up against a linebacker –– but pressure off the right edge from junior defensive end Brady Goodman forced Palos, lined up at quarterback, to throw the ball before he wanted. Palos overthrew his intended receiver who had a step on linebacker Robert Pasinato.
On fourth down, the Huskies lined up in a 3x1 (three receivers to the wide or “field” side, one receiver to the left or “boundary” side) off-set back formation. Quarterback Austin Redmon ran to his right, and just before he got hit by linebacker Brock Uihlein, fired a pass that was intercepted by senior defensive back Jake Milliman.
“We got fourth down stops and takeaways and that’s what you have to do,” Spagnoli said.
The Milliman pick gave the ball back to the offense that ate up the remaining four minutes of the game. Nothing fancy; hand offs and pitches to Scott and Scheidler runs, the final clock-killing first down coming on a push from the offensive line (re-shuffled in the postseason with Allen at center, junior Jackson Sommers and sophomore Brock Uihlein seeing action at guard) and Scheidler getting just enough yards to keep possession and end the game.
“I don’t know if you need to do any more than just enough,” Spagnoli said. “We did.”
There is one area of the game where the Scouts must clean up if they are to beat Prairie Ridge Saturday.
Turnovers –– two of them — were costly and gave extra possessions to the Huskies. Lake Forest got away with them as Harlem did not convert the turnovers into scores but as the competition improves, so must the reduction of errors.
“We can’t shoot ourselves in the foot like that. We have to clean up the mistakes,” Scheidler said, who finished with 178 yards on the ground on 19 carries.
For the second straight postseason, the Scouts are in the Round of 8. Just as with Deerfield in 2019, they are at home for the quarterfinals.
Mighty Prairie Ridge, winners of three Class 6A state championships, enter Varsity Field Saturday to face a Scouts team riding high on confidence and using a familiar winning formula that has a program 20-4 over its past 24 games.
“It works for us,” Spagnoli said. “We’re happy to have another game.”
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