Wilmington Friends junior quarterback Justin Beneck breaks through the reach of Lake Forest senior Ben Moore en route to picking up a first down.
WILMINGTON – Last year, when an undefeated Wilmington Friends team lost to Laurel in the DIAA Division II semifinals, there was no chance to come back the next week.
This year, the undefeated Quakers lost to Tower Hill in their regular-season finale. But they got a second chance in the playoffs, and Friends responded with a 34-14 victory over Lake Forest on Saturday. Ironically, the game was played at Tower Hill’s DeGroat Field.
“We got beat last Friday night. Tower Hill played great, they nipped us,” Quakers coach Bob Tattersall said of his team’s 15-14 loss. “Coming back from that is what is rewarding, satisfying. … It looked eerily like the same thing. We had a two-touchdown lead, they cut it in half, how are we going to respond? Our kids really came up big.”
Third-seeded Friends (9-1) was huge when it needed to be and got back into the Division II semifinals next weekend, against an opponent to be determined. Sixth-seeded Lake Forest (8-3), the Henlopen South champion, lost its playoff opener for the second straight season.
The Quakers mixed the run and pass to perfection on their first two possessions. The first march covered 74 yards in 13 plays, including Justin Beneck completions of 11 and 20 yards to Henry Gise. The second drive gobbled 70 yards in nine plays, highlighted by Beneck’s strikes to Tom Cover for 8 and 10 yards.
Fullback Stephen Maguire also did his part, rushing a combined 12 times for 50 yards. Beneck capped both drives with scoring runs of 1 and 4 yards as Friends took a 14-0 lead with 11:29 left in the second quarter.
“We were just looking for which plays worked,” Maguire said. “Our fullback plays were working better than anything else, so we were just sticking to what worked.”
The Spartans got back in it after Tyler Davis recovered a Quakers fumble at the Friends 32. Noah Feague-Johnson completed a 23-yard pass to Trevon Milton on third-and-14, and Amir White bulled in from the 2 to pull Lake Forest within 14-7 at the half.
The Spartans stopped Friends on fourth-and-goal at the 1 midway through the third quarter. But a 30-yard punt return and personal foul and unsportsmanlike conduct penalties at the end of the play got the Quakers all the way to the 8, and Beneck scored on fourth-and-goal from the 2 for a 21-7 lead.
Wilmington Friends senior Jonathan Gardner makes a hit on Lake Forest quarterback Noah Feague-Johnson during the fourth quarter.
The Spartans pulled within 21-14 on Milton’s 20-yard run with 8:30 to play. But Friends put together another nine-play, 70-yard march, and Gise’s 7-yard touchdown off right tackle pushed the margin back to 28-14 with 3:57 remaining.
Lake Forest’s final hope was extinguished by Cover, who charged in from defensive end to cause a fumble recovered by teammate Ikechukwu Adebi at the Spartans 26. Gise punched it in from the 11 two plays later.
“I came off the edge, and there was nobody blocking the quarterback. It was a straight line to him,” Cover said. “It was just right there for me.”
Beneck rushed 12 times for 64 yards, and completed 8 of 14 passes for 78 yards. Maguire grinded out 61 yards on 22 carries. Milton led Lake Forest with 54 yards on seven carries, but the Quakers’ defense held the Spartans to 122 total yards – just 39 in the second half.
“Especially coming off a tough loss to Tower last week, this means a lot,” Maguire said. “We wanted to make sure to have hard practices and really not let the team fall down.”
Contact Brad Myers at bmyers@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @BradMyersTNJ