Win means Lisle will hope for playoff berth

Lisle simply would not would not allow any obstacle to stop them from getting into the playoffs Friday night. The weather tried its hardest as there were three delays due to lightning that totaled more than an hour and a half of delays.

But that did not make the Lions offense go flat.

Then there was the Sandwich Indians, a team that already earned a a playoff berth earlier in the season, that did little to slow down the Lions (5-4) offense as they put together 368 yards of total offense en route to a 25-14 victory to make the Lions playoff eligible.

"We knew this was a do or die situation for us if we want to continue playing this season," Lisle sophomore running back Anthony Ventrella said. "It was really hard to get into a flow tonight with the weather. We knew we couldn't let that stop us. Nothing stopped us tonight. If we play this way in the upcoming weeks, we can do well."

Ventrella was one of the major reasons the Lions are might be playing another week of football. The sophomore carried the ball 19 times for a game-high 191 yards. He had 3 touchdown runs in the game of 35, 56 and 14 yards.

"The offensive line did a great job opening holes for me to run through," Ventrella said. "On my long touchdown run I took the pitch to the right and it was just open field. Everyone blocked perfectly on that play and I was able to just outrun everyone to the end zone. We knew we had to step up and everyone pitched in."

The opening drive of the game did not look like things were going to be going in Lisle's favor. The Indians (6-3) marched right down the field on a 78-yard drive that ate up more than half of the first quarter as sophomore quarterback Justin Wegener took a quarterback draw in from 5 yards out to grab an early 7-0 lead.

The Lions responded with a 4-play, 68-yard drive that took just 1:54 as Ventrella took a handoff and broke a tackle and raced 35 yards to tie the game up.

Jon Surber completed 9 of 15 passes for 156 yards passing including a 48-yard touchdown pass to Cameron Wright to give the Lions a 19-7 lead midway through the third quarter. Wright finished the game with 69 yards on 3 catches.

"They simply outplayed us tonight," Sandwich coach Derek Avery said. "They were just better than we were. They were able to convert long third-down plays that we couldn't. When we play as poor as we did against a good team like Lisle, you can't win games when that happens. They just took it to us."

Ryan Liss sealed the game for the Lions as he intercepted a Wegener pass with 1:38 remaining in the game. That interception allowed Lisle to run the clock out and start their celebration.