Lyons Township powers past Addison Trail
What Addison Trail lacks in experience on the field, it makes up for with hard work and determination to never quit.
The Blazers showed that on Friday when they squared off in a West Suburban Conference crossover football game against a very good Lyons Twp. team.
Despite falling behind early, Addison Trail fought to the end but came up short as the host Lions captured a 34-6 victory in Western Springs, notching the first career home win for new coach Kurt Weinberg.
The Blazers had no answer for the Lyons Twp. spread offense orchestrated by quarterback Ryan Mitchell. If Mitchell was not hitting receivers downfield for positive yardage, the senior was racking up big yards on the ground. Mitchell threw for 146 yards on 11-of-19 passing and also gained 120 yards on 13 carries. Two of those runs went for touchdowns, of 13 and 25 yards.
"Their quarterback is a good athlete," said Addison Trail coach Paul Parpet. "He runs the ball with some power and can throw the ball well. He is a heck of a player.
"Our kids never quit. We will get them ready for next week. We have a lot of young kids out there. I am very proud of them. Lyons is a good football team."
In addition to Mitchell, running back Nick Brown did some damage of his own for the Lions (2-0), rushing for 82 yards and 3 touchdowns. As a team, Lyons racked up 388 yards of total offense and took command of the game with a 20-0 lead at halftime.
"We kind of had the upper hard, but we didn't want to take advantage of this team," said Brown, whose longest run of the night - 48 yards - also set up a Mitchell rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter.
"We knew we had to run and gun it and play the best we could to get this victory."
There were some highlights for the Blazers (0-2).
Filing in for injured starting quarterback Anthony Catanese, junior Zack Andrews ran the ball hard and made some clutch completions to Vince Beltrano. One of Beltrano's catches was a key play during the scoring drive late in the third quarter.
After a roughing-the-kicker penalty kept the drive alive and a pass interference helped the team get downfield, Andrews and Beltrano connected on a 17-yard pass play down to the Lions' 13-yard line. From there senior running back Frank Cervantes busted free for a touchdown.
Cervantes finished with a team-high 64 yards on 14 carriers. Fellow back Anthony Messina and Andrews each piled up 60 yards.
On the defensive side of the ball, Addison Trail stuffed the Lions on a fourth-down try on their opening drive. Sophomore linebacker Nick Wisniewski made a big hit on Brown to keep him from getting enough yardage for the first down.