Westmont 35, Lisle 24
Lisle football coach Dan Sanko experienced déjà vu Friday night in Westmont.
For the second straight week, Sanko's Lions let a close game get away in the second quarter, this time leading to a 35-24 defeat at the hands of the Westmont Sentinels.
Lisle (0-2) trailed by a touchdown at the outset of the second quarter, yet a scoring blitz by Westmont (2-0) left the visitors heading to halftime down 28-7.
"It's like a carbon copy of last week," Sanko said. "Our second quarter was just a blowup."
In some cases Lisle's mistakes were duplicated right down to a single play. The Lions surrendered a sack that led to a defensive touchdown by committing the same errors made in Week 1.
With the ball on its own 22-yard line and trailing 14-0 early in the second quarter, Lisle quarterback John Surber dropped back to pass.
Westmont senior Jack Delziel shot through the offensive line, sacking Surber and forcing a fumble that Kevin Zapinski returned 17 yards for a 20-0 Sentinels lead.
"We had these mental breakdowns -- (three) mental breakdowns in the secondary, and the same thing happened last week," Sanko said. "That's the disappointing thing, because you're supposed to get better each week."
Sanko challenged his players at halftime to continue pressing, and his message appeared to get through. Lisle kept attacking on the ground, eventually opening holes for tailback Ricardo Lee, who racked up 69 yards in the second half.
"What I will take out of this is they played the second half," Sanko said. "I (told) them, 'I don't care if you win or lose, just fight for a change.' "
With the victory Westmont captures the Old Plank Trophy for the first time in its brief two-year history. Though the two teams have matched up 28 times, the battle for a piece of Ogden Avenue history provides a fresh wrinkle in the rivalry.
"It's something that just kind of adds a little spice for the kids," Westmont coach Jeff Schroeder said. "It's pretty neat. I don't really talk about winning or losing very much, but for the kids…they wanted it, and we're going to post it in front of our school."
Zapinski played the hero role for the Sentinels on offense, gaining 91 yards while adding 2 rushing touchdowns in addition to his defensive score. Senior tight end Kyle Pratt highlighted the passing game with touchdown grabs of 2 and 40 yards.