LYONS 0 7 0 7 14
OPRF 0 0 0 6 6
OPRF football coach Jim Nudera is essentially an optimist regarding his football team, but he must have felt a bit like an illusionist trying to explain Friday night’s mystifying 14-6 loss to Lyons Township.
Make no mistake that the host Lions played well enough to win and are a quality bunch, however, Nudera also knows a primary reason why the Huskies lost was their own undoing-he just had a hard time accepting it.
“Our kids played hard, but they made some mental errors which were really glaring,” Nudera said. “It’s just an issue of young kids calming down and seeing the big picture. We do it every day in practice, so performing during games should be the easy part.”
While OPRF (2-2, 1-1 West Suburban Silver) didn’t exactly snare defeat from the jaws of a victory, the error-prone Huskies certainly didn’t help their cause with eight penalties, three turnovers and four dropped passes, including one in the end zone by a wide open Adam Taylor, and a missed extra point attempt.
Ironically enough, despite all their miscues, the Huskies flourished in several other statistical categories and had several chances to win the game.
Levell Coppage (27 carries for 188 yards, TD) continued his scintillating play and raised his season-total to 608 yards rushing. OPRF collected 12 first downs, while also containing the Lions’ athletic quarterback Ed Viliunas to a mere 29 yards rushing. Jonathan Bibbie, Mark Willis, Troy Aldridge and William Lamar each registered a sack against the athletic 6-foot-4-inch signal-caller.
Scoreless for most of the first half, LT struck first on a 17-yard slant pass from Viliunas (10-of-15, 135 yards passing) to his favorite target Pat Stafford (2 receptions, 51 yards) with 2:09 until the half to stake Lyons to a 7-0 lead. The key play of the drive was a 34-yard pass hookup between Viliunas and Stafford on a Huskies’ defensive broken coverage.
“On that third down-and-15, our free safety jumped in on a route he should have not been in,” Nudera said. “It’s really hard to comment on everything until I see the game film. I do know that when a player’s number is called to catch a ball, stay in a zone defensively or make a play in the kicking game, that player has to make a play.”
Trailing LT 7-0, the Huskies rallied with a time consuming drive that took six minutes off the clock. Coppage capped off the 16-play, 88-yard scoring march when he scored from eight yards out on the first play of the fourth quarter, closing the gap at 7-6. Kicker Samuel Frank missed the extra point attempt.
After holding LT to a three-and-out offensive series, the Huskies regained possession only to commit a critical fumble on their own 30. Seven plays later, the Lions capitalized as Viliunas scored on a one-yard keeper to extend their lead to 14-6 with 6:19 left in the game.
OPRF mounted one final drive from the Lions’ 42 with 1:38 remaining, but quarterback Clarke Cuthbert (6-of-21, 65 yards passing) threw his second interception to quell any hopes of a game-tying drive.
The Huskies return home Saturday to face Hinsdale Central at 1:30 p.m. The Red Devils (3-1, 2-0) feature quarterback John Whitelaw and running back Billy Auriemma.