Miscues plague Lisle

On a night when points were hard enough to come by, Lisle's offense certainly didn't do itself any favors.

Thanks to a turnover-on-downs, a lost fumble and an interception - all in a 10-minute span - the Lions helped turn a scoreless third-quarter tie against Reed-Custer into a 17-0 deficit, eventually dropping their season opener to the Comets by the same score Friday night at Benedictine University.

Defense dominated the first half, as both offenses combined for less than 130 total yards and no points. Lisle looked in position to take the lead on the second half's opening drive, marching down to the Comets' 22-yard line behind a pair of receptions by senior running back Jake Kretmen. A false-start penalty knocked the Lions back five yards, and a trio of incomplete passes ended the threat.

"I think it was just mental mistakes, discipline mistakes," running back Anthony Ventrella said. "We played them tough, but mental mistakes just killed us."

Reed-Custer (1-0) finally broke the scoring drought with 3:10 remaining in the third quarter, as senior running back Garrett Sandefur scampered around the left side for a 10-yard touchdown run.

From there, the Lions lost control quickly. Instead of answering back, Lisle fumbled on its first play from scrimmage, leading to a 27-yard field goal by the Comets' Zach Boyer.

Lisle again lost possession on its next play from scrimmage, this time via an under-thrown flea-flicker attempt. After a 15-yard facemask penalty against the Lions, Reed-Custer quarterback Derek Albin executed a hard-nosed bootleg, breaking several tackles along the right sideline for a 19-yard touchdown run to cap the game's scoring.

"We just never, ever got it going," Lisle coach Dan Sanko said. "I was worried about our quarterback (Chris Wray), but he didn't hurt us. Our quarterback managed the field well, I think our defense played well, but they were just out there the whole game, and you can't have that."

The Lions also can't have opponents beating them down late in games - an aspect of Friday night's loss that left Sanko with a sour taste in his mouth.

"They wore us down at the end, and that surprised me," he said. "They've got the same roster we do, they just were obviously in better shape than we were.

"I'm a little disappointed in that."

Lisle will try to turn things around against Coal City next Friday.

"We're going to be resilient, I promise you that," Ventrella said. "We will work harder and we will be better."