La Salle-Peru misses opportunities in loss to Metamora

LA SALLE – Down a touchdown with six minutes left in the third quarter, the La Salle-Peru football team had several opportunities to tie the game or take the lead.

But three times the Cavaliers drove just outside the red zone only to be stopped on fourth down before an interception with less than a minute left sealed their fate in a 14-7 nonconference loss to Metamora on Friday at Howard Fellows Stadium.

“I thought we played pretty well,” L-P coach Jose Medina said. “We just didn’t capitalize on opportunities we had. That’s a pretty good Metamora team over there. They’re going to be a playoff team. We played tough through all four quarters. We just couldn’t put points on the board, and they scored one more [touchdown] than us.”

The Redbirds (2-0) went ahead 14-0 on their first drive of the second half when quarterback Connor Willerton rolled right and found Solomon Schwarz for a 37-yard touchdown before running in the two-point conversion.

The Cavs (1-1) had a quick response as Tre’von Hunter took a pitch and raced 67 yards for a TD to pull L-P within a score with 6:10 left in the third.

L-P linebacker Chris Swayne then intercepted a pass and returned it 21 yards to the Metamora 29-yard line.

But the Cavs couldn’t cash in on the momentum-changing play.

A pair of illegal motion penalties on the drive left L-P facing fourth-and-2 at the 21 when quarterback Sean Whitfield was stopped inches short of the first down.

On L-P’s next drive, an 8-yard loss on third down put L-P in fourth-and-13 at the 22 and Whitfield’s pass fell incomplete.

An intentional grounding proved costly on L-P’s next drive that ended on another incomplete pass on fourth down.

“Miscues, missed blocks, maybe a dropped ball here and there,” Medina said about what stalled L-P’s offense. “It’s the game. We have to regroup and we have to make those plays. Unfortunately, we didn’t today.”

The L-P defense came up with another stop as Luke Mertes sacked Willerton for an 8-yard loss and Will Daugherty tackled Willerton for no gain on fourth down, giving the Cavs the ball at their own 39.

A 26-yard run by Hunter gave advanced L-P to Metamora’s 28.

After a 4-yard loss, L-P called its last timeout with 56 seconds left, facing second-and-14 from the 32.

The snap was low, Whitfield picked it up, looked down field and fired a pass, but it was picked off by Kaden Hartnett to seal the win for the Redbirds.

“It’s a tough loss, but they’re a great team,” Mertes said. “Offensively, we need to execute better. Defensively, we played great. We slacked a little bit the first half, but we picked it up. I feel like we played a great game.”

In the first half, each team’s opening drive stalled deep in the opponent’s territory.

L-P’s Daugherty and Corey Walker tackled Garrett Taylor short of the first down on fourth-and-4 from the 14.

The Cavs then marched 76 yards on 11 plays down to the Redbird 12, but an illegal motion, two negative runs and an incomplete pass ended the drive that lasted nearly nine minutes.

After the teams traded punts, Metamora broke through when Willertron scrambled, stepped up toward the line of scrimmage and launched a 54-yard TD pass to Schwarz with 3:23 left in the half.

“The defense has been playing outstanding,” Medina said. “They had a couple big plays, but it’s a defense that bends a little but doesn’t break. We kept fighting. They scored twice on us, but other than that the defense was solid.

“[On the TDs], he scrambled, we probably just lost contain. When you give that quarterback enough time like that, but things are going to happen.”

L-P’s final drive of the half ended on a fumble.

Willerton completed seven passes – all to Schwarz – for 130 yards and two TDs while running for 62 yards. Ethan Petri led Metamora’s ground attack with 83 yards on 12 carries.

For L-P, Whitfield ran for 89 yards on 22 attempts while completing 3-of-11 passes for 60 yards.

Hunter ran for 85 yards and a TD on three attempts while catching three passes for 33 yards.