Saturday Q&A with Lake Forest Football Coach Chuck Spagnoli

The locker room was a bit more subdued after 27-19 football win over Warren late Thursday night.

The victory all but guaranteed the Scouts (6-1 overall, 4-0 North Suburban Conference Lake Divison) a second straight playoff appearance and catapuluted them into first place in their divisional race after Lake Zurich (5-2, 3-1) was upended by Stevenson, 24-17, Thursday night.

After the game, Lake Forest coach Chuck Spagnoli talked about how his team was able to hold off a second-half charge from the Blue Devils.

You lose your quarterback (Jordan Beck with dislocated left elbow) and still beat a good Warren team. Talk about this victory. 

I told our team afterwards that adversity is a teacher to some degree. When something happens to your team, you have to either come together and weld it together or the team falls apart. To me, the only thing I'll remember about this game frankly is how they brought it together. Our leadership continues to amaze me.

Andrew Clifford (6-for-14, 103 yards, 1 TD) comes in for Jordan Beck in the second quarter and immediately leads team on touchdown drive. How did he handle the situation?

I think he was as good as we could have expected. We didn't game plan to have him in there as much as he was. Maybe some of his strengths were not part of the game plan. He did what he could do realistically. He threw a touchdown pass (21-yarder to Luke Bernardi) that was as good a pass as we've had thrown here, and we've had some good ones.

Who are some players when you look at the film had big games?

I saw Brandt Pfeifer (six tackles) out of nowhere that he was bam, making a play. The same for Tommy Kutschke (seven tackles, three-and-a-half for losses) Those are two guys. Ben Warren (six tackles, one interception) also. It's such a team game. So many people are dependant on other people. When you realize that and play that way, it's what makes it just really fun to be around.

Warren had to win this game for a shot at the playoffs. They outscored you 12-0 in the second half and had a few chances for potentially game-tying scores. You stopped them each time. What does that say about your team?

We needed this win to solidify a playoff spot. And as I told the kids after the game, I don't care what Lake Zurich did tonight. It doesn't matter to me. I care about what our team did. We'll do same thing next week. We'll work on what we can do. We have some work to do this week. We have to get our punting game straight, we have to get our quarterback situation straight. We don't have one right now.

Is it safe to say Jordan won't play Friday against Lake Zurich?

I don't know. We'll have to see what doctor says. I know this, if Jordan's able to play he will play. Knowing Jordan, I would be surprised if he doesn't play. Right now, I'm assuming he will be.

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