L-P starts strong in resumed game, beats Plano

At 10 Saturday morning, the scoreboard read 6:18 to play in the second quarter with the La Salle Peru football team on the Plano 18-yard line facing a second-goal.

Not that unusual except that it was the first play of the day.

In the next two plays, the Cavs picked up eight of the 18 they needed but faced a fourth-and-goal from the 10.

Junior quarterback Tyler Hartman took the shot gun snap and scrambled to buy time before lofting a pass into the end zone where 6-foot-3” tight end Nolan Hamilton out jumped a Reaper defender to come down with the first score of the game to spark the Cavs to a 40-8 victory in an Interstate Eight Conference game at Howard Fellows Stadium in Peru.

The Cavaliers’ strong start continued as L-P sophomore picked off an Alex Velasquez pass and returned it to the Plano 38-yard line to set the Cavs up in great position with 3:44 to play in the half.

The Cavaliers used their big offensive line of Michael Hammen, Adam Kofoid, Logan Turigliatti, Eric Lane and Carson Mrowicki to blast holes for Hartman and Carlos Larios to run through.

The Cavs drove own to the 9-yard line before facing another fourth-and-goal.

Hartman went to the air once again as he fired the ball to the back of the end zone where Drake Weber grabbed it out of the air and acrobatically got his feet down to give the Cavaliers a 12-0 lead with 22 seconds left on the clock.

The Cavaliers lined up for a two-point conversion and run an option to the left with Gaige Noonan — using a perfect seal block from Reece Kurtz —plunged into to stake LP to a 14-0 halftime lead.

“It was a definite turn of events,” L-P coach Jose Medina said. “(Friday) night we came out flat and today we got some good plays on fourth down and that sparked us a little bit. In this type of weather you are going to have to grind it out and our line stepped it up. We had them up in the chutes before the game getting them dirty and getting them ready. We knew they had to get going and they took advantage of it and did a great job.”

Plano coach Rick Ponx said the unusual circumstances of the Saturday morning game was not an excuse.

“That wasn’t it. You have to make plays when you have the opportunity to make plays and we pushed them to fourth down and they had two good pass plays,” Ponx said. “We had guys there but we didn’t make the plays and their guys did. I told our kids we are playing up a level and these games are going to be tough and you have to be ready for it. You can’t back down and after those two plays we were down 14-0 and our kids stayed positive and continued to play hard, which was good to see.”

The second half began with the Reapers getting a Velasquez pass to Kameron Williams for 10 yards and a pass interference penalty to move the ball to midfield before the Cavalier defense begin to instill its will as it forced a turnover on downs.

The Cavs got big plays from Jake Wagner and Nick Krolak as they spent much of the series in the Reaper backfield.

L-P took over possession at its own 42 before methodically moving the ball down the field with Larios and Hartman taking turns churning through the mud until Hartman went off tackle for a 3-yard TD run. Weber’s kick put the Cavs up 21-0 with 5:21 to play in the third.

The Reapers started their next drive on a positive note when Velasquez again found Williams — this time for 17 yards. Tony Licea then had a couple nice runs for the Reapers before L-P lineman Luke Keating tracked down Licea to force a punting situation.

The home team ran out the rest of the third and begao the final quarter at the Plano 43-yard line.

The Cavs advanced the ball to the 32 where Noonan got the ball on a counter and found daylight off the left side for a touchdown.

After a Weber kick, L-P held a commanding 28-0 advantage with 9:37 left.

The Cavalier defense led by Krolak, Wagner, Keating, Payton Piriano, Parker Swiskowski and Nathan Hackenberger again stood tall and set up L-P for another score.

This time it was Larios’ turn as he powered in from 3 yards out to put the Cavaliers up 34-0 with 3:29 left.

The Reapers finally had something positive to build on as Velasquez found a streaking Sebastian Estrada across the middle for a 77-yard touchdown strike. Velasquez then connected with Trey Smith for the two-point conversion to make the score 34-8.

L-P closed the scoring with a 46-yard scamper from backup quarterback Sean Whitefield to bring the final to 40-8.

Following the contest as Medina spoke with his team and pointed up to the press box that features a sign listing the years the Cavaliers have made the playoffs and said, “One more win and you guys will be up there. One more.”