With Lyons Township football fielding a team without a single returning starter, it could be that a game like Friday’s against Hersey was bound to happen.
Rookie mistakes would help sink the Lions as they were bounced in their season-opener 31-14.
“We ended up making too many mental mistakes,” LT coach Jack Derning said. “We gave up the big play and made the mental mistakes you get sometimes with a young team.”
The Lions (0-1) made a costly mistake early, fumbling on their own 35-yard line to start the game. Hersey (1-0) was only able to capitalize because a missed defensive assignment allowed the Huskies to convert a fourth-and-3 play deep in Lions territory to take an early 7-0 lead.
LT looked like it would recover as the running game looked sharp and Neal Loftus rushed for a pair of first-half touchdowns to put the Lions ahead 14-7 just minutes before halftime. Mike Cklamovski drilled both extra-point attempts.
But things were just beginning to unravel.
Hersey tied the game on a long pass play, and LT followed with an interception that gave the Huskies a field goal and a 17-14 advantage at the intermission.
“The momentum pretty much swung right there,” Derning said. “Our offense dominated the first half, and the defense played well. But then instead of going to the locker room with a cushion, we made a couple mistakes and went to halftime in a hole.”
It was all Hersey in the second half, as more defensive mistakes gave the Huskies another pair of touchdowns.
Derning said he didn’t fault the effort the team gave him Friday night, and that mistakes would be a fact of life for a young team. But he also cautioned that the Lions won’t spend too much time on-the-job training, at least if they hope for a return trip to the playoffs.
“Football isn’t like baseball or basketball where you can dig a hole and have 30 games to climb out of it,” Derning said. “The season is too short to celebrate any victory or mope about any loss, but this is definitely the kind of loss that can come back to haunt a team later in the year.”
LT will try to regroup Friday when they host Hinsdale South (1-0) at 7:30 p.m. The Hornets beat Upstate Eight Conference hopeful St. Charles East (0-1) 20-14 last week.
