Wheaton Warrenville South’s fast start not enough to knock off Lyons

Lyons Township head football coach Jon Beutjer won his fair share of games, including a state title, over the years as a quarterback at Wheaton Warrenville South.

On Friday night, Beutjer watched his team rally from a 9-0 halftime deficit to stun the host Tigers, 18-9.

"We challenged them at halftime," said Beutjer, whose team managed just two first downs in the first half. "Someone had to step up and make some plays offensively."

The Lions (2-0) took the opening kickoff of the second half and marched 66 yards in six plays, capped by Ben Sosne's 18-yard touchdown run off a direct snap to narrow the deficit to 9-7.

Midway through the fourth quarter, the Lions took the lead for good on a four-yard touchdown run by EJ Kuhlman, who rushed for 105 yards on 18 carries — 101 of those yards coming in the second half.

The key play of the drive came when quarterback Brendan McCabe avoided a pair of Tigers defenders and connected with tight end Owen Matela for 22 yards on a third-and-17 play near midfield.

"McCabe did a nice job extending the play," said Beutjer.

After recording 12 first downs in the opening half, WW South (1-1) managed just two until its last possession.

"Offensively, we missed some opportunities with penalties in the first half," said Tigers coach Sean Norris. "In the second half, we didn't execute, and they were more physical than we were.

"We couldn't find a rhythm in the second half."

Tigers junior quarterback AJ Rogers finished 22 of 32 for 225 yards and a touchdown in the loss.

WW South grabbed a 3-0 lead on Drew Maletich's 32-yard, second-quarter field goal that snapped a scoreless deadlock.

A few moments later, the Tigers forced a turnover, as a hard-charging Ben Menzer jarred the ball loose from McCabe, and senior defensive lineman Joshua Heller recovered the fumble near midfield.

From there, the Tigers marched 56 yards in six plays, capped by Rogers’ 13-yard touchdown pass to Blake Ittersagen with four seconds remaining in the half to make it 9-0.

Equally impressive was the fact that the Tigers called their final timeout at their own 47 with 33 seconds left in the half.

Rogers then completed three consecutive passes — two to junior tight end Kennan Yarbrough before stepping up in the pocket and delivering a strike to Ittersagen in the end zone.

Defensively, the Tigers limited Lyons to 41 yards of offense in the first half. Clark Jensen, Alec Maletich, Logan Prignano, Menzer, and Heller contributed to harass the Lions.

Rogers finished 13 of 17 for 151 yards in the opening half, completing passes to five different receivers.

The loss was a rarity for the Tigers' strong junior class.

"It hurts, but we know we didn't play our best ball," said Rogers.