Heading into the half-time break last Friday, the Lasalle Lancers had clearly missed the chance to establish some momentum in their key senior football matchup with the Lively Hawks.
Trailing 7-6 but driving the ball, the Lancers not only failed to punch it home after getting to first and goal from the two with less than three minutes to play but then compounded matters by surrendering a 40 yard slot screen to Kadin Broomhead that increased their deficit to eight points.
Nothing was going their way - but that wasn't the way coaches J.J. McKnight and Kyle Preseau assessed the situation.
"The way we saw it, this was by far our best game on offense," said McKnight, a fair statement considering the team had yet to score an offensive touchdown this fall in two games entering this battle.
"Our offense was moving the ball but we had some bad luck. Our message to the team at the half is that we were right there, one score away."
To boot, they were looking at a Lively sideline that was ill-equipped to deal with many more bumps and bruises, given their limited numbers.
"They had a short bench and we're a team that comes at you pretty hard," said McKnight. "We thought we could lean on them a bit and wear them down."
With returning all-star Sylas Asare-Corbiere helping excite the troops with no less than three interceptions in the game, the Lancers pulled even in quarter three when Adam Clement followed up a short touchdown run with a two point conversion as well.
Still, it was an unlikely hero that would emerge to give Lasalle this 20-14 victory. Defensive lineman Jaden Brennan was called upon to assist a backfield that had already lost feature back and place kicker Colton Cooke to injury.
"He was in for two or three plays as lead blocker and then we gave him the ball," said McKnight. "He broke about three tackles. We didn't really see it coming, but we trust J.B."
Making his first start as a senior quarterback, Ryder Kirby connected with Jude St Michael-Leblanc from about twenty yards out, with Lively getting that back when Riley Kirwan squeezed in from the two, as Koen Palmquist converted both majors.
Now at 2-1, Lasalle still must face the front-end tandem of the Confederation Chargers and Lo-Ellen Park Knights, the teams deadlocked at 2-0-1 following a dramatic 21-21 tie in the late game.
Three-time defending league champs, Lo-Ellen had a chance to win this outright but missed a field goal wide on the final play of the game, with the Chargers alertly punting the ball out of their own end zone to avoid giving up a single point.
Quin Mazzuchin (2 TDs), Jonah Gibson (TD + 2 pt convert) and Luca Cucullo (PAT) accounted for the Knights scoring while Evan Doyle (2 TDs) and Vraedan Beggs (TD + 3 converts) took care of matters for the Chargers.
Action this Friday sees the St Charles College Cardinals (0-2) meeting Lively (0-3) in the afternoon game, followed by Confederation and Lasalle and finally Lo-Ellen taking on the St Benedict Bears (1-1).
