Lyons Township battles til end to hold on over Hinsdale Central 21-16
As Hinsdale Central drove down the field in the closing seconds, Lyons Township linebacker Pat Cheney was confident he and his fellow defenders would hold.
“Perseverance. Our motto is JYD – junkyard dogs,” said Cheney after his Lions prevailed over the host Red Devils 21-16 in a West Suburban Silver showdown. “We all worked together and got the stop.”
LT coach Jon Beutjer breathed a huge sigh of relief once Hinsdale Central quarterback Riley Contreras’s final pass fell incomplete as time expired.
“I’m just so proud of our players,” he said. “Hats off to (Hinsdale Central), they played hard and had a good game plan. But our kids showed grit; we had some adversity at the end, but our kids hung strong.”
After a scoreless first quarter, Hinsdale Central (1-2, 0-1 in WSC Silver) got a break with 3:24 left in the first half as Lyons Township punter Shane Harris bobbled a snap and was dropped for an 18-yard loss by the Red Devils’ Alec Trainer on the Lions’ 43.
But after advancing to the LT 23, HC kicker Micah Drescher’s 40-yard field goal try was blocked by Cheney. Then Mack Long scooped up the loose ball and ran 65 yards for a touchdown at the 1:06 mark.
“I bull-rushed the right tackle and got through right away,” Cheney said. “Got past the edge and blocked it.”
However, Hinsdale Central regrouped and quickly marched 80 yards on six plays in just 46 seconds as Contreras (17-of-35, 175 yards passing) connected with Kelan McInerney on a 23-yard pass that tied the game 7-7 heading into halftime.
“It was huge,” Hinsdale Central Brian Griffin said. “The odds of that happening in a short time, the kids showed tough resolve.”
Lyons Township (3-0, 1-0) started the second half impressively, marching 80 yards on an 11-play drive that ate up almost 5 1/2 minutes. Danny Carroll (18 rushes, 125 yards) capped things with a 4-yard touchdown run that gave the Lions a 14-7 lead.
“(Hinsdale Central) was doing some things in the first half we hadn’t seen,” Beutjer said. “But we made some adjustments, and that first second-half drive was huge.”
Hinsdale Central cut the deficit to 14-10 on a Drescher 37-yard field goal with 7:59 remaining in the fourth quarter. But then Lyons went on another 80-yard scoring drive, and this one took just five plays as Dom Pisciotti found Tucker King over the middle 35 yards for a touchdown. The Lions looked in command, leading 21-10 with 5:23 left.
But the Red Devils’ refused to fold. James Skokna’s 44-yard kickoff return gave HC excellent field position, then Contreras’s 1-yard touchdown run on 4th and goal from the LT 1 with 1:47 left made the score 21-16.
Drescher’s onsides kick failed, but Lyons couldn’t get a first down, and Hinsdale had a chance to pull out a victory. On 4th and 15 from his 16, Contreras found Dominic Tressiar for 17 yards to keep the Red Devils alive.
A completion to Patrick Connors for 17 more yards, followed by consecutive LT penalties for targeting and roughing the passer put the ball on the Lions’ 13 with 21 seconds left. But Contreras’s final four passes were incomplete, including the final one for Jack Lesniewicz in the end zone. Lesniewicz had his hands on the ball, but an LT defender knocked it out, securing the victory for the Lions.
“I’m so proud of these kids. There were several times in this game where we could’ve packed it in,” Griffin said. “Kudos to LT, they executed a little better than we did. We made some plays down the stretch, but we’ve got to finish.”
“It was a battle til the end,” Cheney said. “It was a little sloppy, but we got through.”
Lyons returns home next week to face Glenbard West, while Hinsdale Central hosts Morton.