Lake Forest Youth Rugby Wears Middle School Crown

The Lake Forest Youth Rugby Club emerged from a back-and-forth contest to knock off the Arlington Stallions, 30-22, and capture the Illinois Youth Rugby Association Middle School State championship on May 28 in Lemont.

Both teams were undefeated coming into the game, resulting in several lead changes. Lake Forest scored twice late in the contest to gain the State title.

Mitch Cohen led the Lake Forest offense with two trys, and was named the game's Most Valuable Player. Single trys were contributed by Peter Sorenson, Macklin Simms and Stelio Panagiotaros. Also providing strong support were Will Conover, Yanni Ballis, Jack Patton, and Cory Barth.

The Lake Forest team is made up primarily of seventh and eighth graders from Lake Forest and Lake Bluff, but also included a number of players from Highland Park, Deerfield, and Winnetka.

The roster included: Yanni Ballis, Georgi Ballism, Cory Barth, Mitch Cohen, Will Conover, Brandon Davalle, Jack Deblasio, Luke Dooley, Travis Gaye, Gabe Guzmann, Justin Jacobson, Sebastian McAlister, Peter Sorenson, Robert McCaffrey-Boss, Kyle Miller, Stelio Panagiotaros, Jack Patton, Koster Silvernail, Macklin Simms, David Slear, Patrick Taylor, James Todd, Wyatt Verlen, Michael Watkins and Nicholas Yehle.

The team is coached by Tom Gaye, John Deblasio and James McKegg.

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