Deerfield opened its home campaign on a losing note as the Warriors fell to St. Viator 21-3 Friday night at Paul Adams Field.
Deerfield struggled on offense, managing just 102 yards, all of which came on the ground as the Warriors lost three turnovers.
“Last week it was us that was the beneficiary of turnovers,” said Deerfield coach Steve Winiecki. “But tonight it was us turning the ball over in key places.”
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Deerfield (1-1) came up with a big stop defensively early in the first quarter. The Warriors forced St. Viator to throw an errant pass as the Lions gambled on fourth down and one at their own 44-yard line.
Deerfield put together its best drive of the night as offensive linemen Ross Leviton, Alex Boryszczuk, Casey Spiwak, Patrick Johnson and David Vanderkloot opened up some big holes for Alec Frank (16 carries, 67 yards).
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Deerfield marched to the St. Viator 5-yard line where the drive stalled and Michael Maki booted a 22-yard field goal to put the Warriors up 3-0 with 10:37 left in the first half.
But from there, the Deerfield offense could never get on track. And when the Warriors did manage to put a few plays together, the turnover bug bit hard.
“We just couldn’t piece anything together,” Winiecki said. “Every time we got something going, we made a crucial error.”
With the offense stymied, Deerfield turned to its defense to keep the Warriors in the game. Led by Jacob Balder, Deerfield trailed only 9-3 at the half. But St. Viator went to its running game in the second half, posting a couple of touchdowns to put the game away.
“We made some mistakes on defense,” Balder said. “We did manage to contain them for the most part though.”
Deerfield will look to bounce back next week when the Warriors travel to Park Ridge to take on state-power Maine South.
St. Viator 21, Deerfield 3
St. Viator 0 9 6 6 – 21
Deerfield 0 3 0 0 - 3
Scoring Summary
D: Maki, 22-yard field goal
V: Hammarlund, 10-yard pass from Calmeyn (kick blocked)
V: Sanchez, 25-yard field goal
V: Arogundade, 3-yard run (pass failed)
V: Arongundade, 50-yard run
SV D
First downs 14 7
Total yards 303 102
Yards rushing 164 102
Yards passing 139 0
Passing 9-21-0 0-3-2
Punting 3-26.3 4-44.0
Fumbles-lost 1-0 2-1
Penalties-yards 8-75 6-50
INDIVIDUAL
Rushing : SV: Arongundade 17-128, Hammarlund 1-19, Dickey 5-6, O’Malley 1-6, Calmeyn 4-4, Kinasz 1-3, McCollum 1- (minus 8). D: Frank 16-67, Kollada 13-38, Modro 1-14, Freedberg 4-12, Shanley 2 – (minus 8), Williams 7- (minus 15).
Passing: SV: Calmeyn 9-21-139-0. D: Kollada 0-3-0-2.
Receiving: SV: Balas 3-45, Faerber 3-42, Dickey 2-42, Hammarlund 1-10.
Punting; SV: McCollum 3-79-26.3; D: Maki 4-176-44.0
Interceptions: SV: Piechocki, Hammarlund
