Lemont Wins Battle of Football Unbeatens

Lemont senior Clayton Fejedelem and his teammates more than had their hands full trying to slow down Oak Forest star receiver Tevin Coleman Friday night in Oak Forest.

Yet it was Fejedelem and the Indians who left with the last laugh in the battle of the unbeatens.

Fejedelem's interception of a Tim Longawa pass with just over two minutes left to play sealed the Indians' 35-21 South Suburban Blue victory. It was not until that point that Lemont could breathe easy after watching the Bengals' speedy Coleman keep the hosts in the game with dazzling touchdowns through the air, on the ground and even on an 85-yard kickoff return to open the second half.

"No. 1 (Coleman) is fast, and we talked about him all week," Fejedelem. "He's pure speed. He had gotten me a couple times, but I owed it to my team to step up."

After Lemont (4-0 overall, 1-0 SSB)  had jumped ahead 14-0 with a 38-yard pass from quarterback Mike Medwed to Lee Taylor on the opening drive and followed that with a 5-yard keeper by Medwed, Coleman got the Bengals (3-1, 1-1) back in the contest with a blazing 53-yard run late in the first quarter.

The Indians, who piled up 297 yards of total offense in the first half alone, led 21-7 at the break following Medwed's 4-yard scoring pass to Danny Arenberg in the second quarter. For the night, Medwed passed for 138 yards and two TDs and ran for another 81 yards and two more scores.

"We were able to run the ball when we needed to run the ball" Lemont's senior signal-caller said. "The line blocked great and everyone stayed focused."

It was a good thing the offense stayed sharp in the second half after Coleman's long return closed the gap to 21-14 and temporarily fired up the home crowd. With the Indians line playing well, Jack Forrest was able to rush for 123 yards on 26 carries while Mike Anzalone and Medwed each went over 80 yards on the ground as Lemont controlled the line of scrimmage and did its best to keep the ball away from the likes of Coleman and Longawa.

"I'm just glad we didn't give them the ball too many more times," Lemont coach Eric Michaelsen said. "Every time No. 1 or No. 5 (Longawa) has the ball, something special can happen. It's become a nice rivalry game. We have a ton of respect for what they do."

The Indians will take their 4-0 record into next week's Homecoming matchup with T.F. South, but first they can let Friday's big win sink in just a little.

"It feels great," Fejedelem said. "But we can't get a big head. We have some tough games coming up."