It was a stalemate in the first half when Lake Zurich hosted Lake Forest Friday night in North Suburban Conference football action.

The teams played to a 7-7 tie heading into the intermission, but the second half was dominated by the host Bears as they scored on the first play of the third quarter before rolling to a 28-7 NSC victory.

Senior quarterback Reid Pfeifer (9 for 16, 152 yards) threw a short pass to Chris Chang, who broke a tackle and raced 80 yards down the right sideline for the touchdown and a 14-7 lead just 14 seconds into the second half.

The Scouts (2-3, 1-2) had little luck moving the ball consistently in the third quarter as Lake Zurich (4-1, 3-0) took advantage of great field possession on the Lake Forest 41-yard line. Seven plays later, junior Brock Rubicz went 20 yards for the touchdown the first and only time he touched the ball for a 21-7 lead with 2:07 left in the period.

“We didn’t make any halftime adjustments. Our quarterback (Pfeifer) had to trust his reads and in the second half he did a great job,” said Lake Zurich coach Ron Planz, whose team has won four games in a row. “The defense played great, they gave us plenty of good field position in the first half. And you worry that the defense gets frustrated and they feel like they’ve got to do more, but they kept doing what they’re supposed to do and it was good to see.”

Lake Zurich wide receiver Evan Peterson caught a short pass from Pfeifer and raced 33 yards for a touchdown and a 28-7 lead with 8:26 to play to put Lake Forest away. Pfeifer had 17 yards on 4 carries while Owen Yates had 33 yards on 16 attempts for the Scouts.

“Our defense played great. One thing about us is adversity will never stop us and on the first play we came out with great intensity and scored,” said Pfeifer, who was 4-for-9 for 10 yards in the first half. “I think that changed the energy on the sideline. Everyone was up, and that was huge for us momentum-wise.”

The Scouts got on the scoreboard first when Sufyan Hussain (12 for 17, 110 yards) hit a wide-open James Elliott for a 7-yard touchdown pass before Hussain’s extra point gave the Scouts a 7-0 lead with 3:31 remaining in the first quarter.

The Bears’ offense struggled to get rolling early on, but senior running back Kaden Abrantes (86 yards on 14 rushes) broke free for a 36-yard TD run before Tyler Vuckovic’s extra point deadlocked the score at 7-7 with 9:02 left in the second quarter.