Lyons 7
OPRF 6
An afternoon of stalled offensive drives came to head when a field goal avoided the uprights in the closing seconds of the OPRF football team’s game against Lyons Township at Oak Park Stadium on Saturday. Lyons Township ended up with the low-scoring win, edging the Huskies 7-6.
Shortly after Marty Finnegan hauled in a 10-yard pass on fourth down to put his team at the Lions’ own 25, the wide receiver/kicker missed a 33-yard desperation field goal in the closing seconds. It was the Huskies’ last-ditch effort for a win, coming after some help from their opponent.
At the 4:15 mark of the fourth quarter, the ball literally bounced the Huskies’ way. With Lyons moving down the field for an insurance touchdown, the Lions’ Nick Brown (8 carries, 60 yards) fumbled the ball at the OPRF 1-yard line, which proceeded to roll through the end zone out of bounds.
Regaining possession at their 20, the reinvigorated Huskies orchestrated a 15-play, 64-yard drive to set up Finnegan’s field goal attempt. With less than a minute left and the ball on the Lyons nine, Davidson was sacked by Matt Polega for a costly 7-yard loss.
Despite the conference setback, OPRF played LT to a virtual standstill statistically. The Huskies collected 14 first downs compared to the Lions’ 15. Lyons held a slight time of possession edge (24:40 to 23:20) but the Huskies averaged more yards per play (6.5 to LT’s 5.4). Both teams amassed 287 yards of total offense.
The Huskies (1-3, 0-2 West Suburban Silver) opened the game in dazzling fashion with a six-play, 79-yard scoring drive highlighted by passes from Davidson (16-for-25, 240 yards passing) to Darnell Lee (51 yards) and Finnegan (18 yards). James Cole (7 carries, 51 yards) capped off the series with a 3-yard touchdown run to give OPRF a 6-0 lead at 10:08 of the first quarter.
On OPRF’s next series, a fumble by Cole allowed Lyons to set up camp at the Huskies’ 35. Two plays later, Lyons quarterback Ryan Mitchell (15 carries, 97 yards) scampered 22 yards into the end zone. Kicker Ryan Guenther added the extra point to put the Lions up 7-6.
Although Lyons (1-3, 1-1) rushed for over 250 yards, the OPRF defense kept the Lions’ split-veer running attack relatively in check.
“We did a much better job defensively than we did against Glenbard West [54-14 loss on Sept. 15] which is encouraging,” said OPRF coach Jim Nudera. “But we weren’t able to come up with enough big plays when we needed them to pull ahead.”
Sean McDonald, Dorion Grant, Adarius Booth, Tom Raliegh, Ben Keller, Mark Willis, Martin Hodges and Amir Arif led a strong, gang-tackling effort by the Huskies.
“Everybody played hard [today] but we just came up short,” McDonald said. “Basically, if we want to win conference we need to win the rest of our games.”
The disappointing loss came at the end of a tragic week for Nudera, whose nephew, U.S. Army Pvt. Lenny Gulczynski, 19, died in a vehicle accident in Iraq.
“It’s a real tough one,” Nudera said. “Our family has never dealt with anything like this before. Everybody is devastated.”
Nudera said it is still up in the air whether or not he will attend OPRF’s game at Hinsdale Central on Friday.
