LEROY — Lyle/Pacelli’s football team found LeRoy/Ostrander’s weakness on defense early and they used it all night in a 20-8 season opening victory in LeRoy Thursday.

The Athletics (1-0 overall) hit outside run after outside run to move the ball as sophomore Damien Haugen racked up 135 yards on 25 carries with a touchdown while hitting six runs over 10 yards.

“They were getting inside so I went outside,” Haugen said. “As soon as you got around the corner, you’d get at least 10 yards.”

Haugen put L/P up 6-0 on the Athletics’ first possession as he scampered 13-yards on a toss left and L/P took a 14-0 lead with 1:08 left in the first half when Carter Guthmiller found Ryan Rust for a three-yard touchdown pass on fourth and three.

L/P had three running plays combine for zero yards from inside the Cardinal five-yard line before Guthmiller made the throw.

“They were stuffing the run so we had to throw and we figured Ryan would be open,” L/P head coach Mark Buntje said.

The Cardinals (0-1 overall) almost made a quick response to the L/P’s score as Kirk Nelson hauled in a 41-yard pass from Lucas Roe to get L/O to the five-yard line with 35 seconds left, but the Cards committed a crucial false start and they ran out of time before they could put up a score.

“To get that score before the half and then hold them was huge. That was a big turnaround,” Buntje said.

L/O did score to open the second half when Mitch Scaglione got loose on a 19-yard end-around to make it 14-8, but the Cards muffed a punt and lost a snap on a punt in two of their last three possessions.

The bad snap set up an 11-yard touchdown run by Guthmiller on a bootleg to make it 20-8 with 11:08 left in the game.

“We just kept pounding the ball, there was really no secret to what we did,” Guthmiller said. “Damien did a good job running and our counters set up our blasts.”

The Cards drove down to the L/P 19-yard line on their next possession, but they had a penalty take away a first down on the six-yard line with 8:07 left and they couldn’t covert from that point.

On L/P’s next possession, the Cards stopped held Haugen to a 15-yard run on third and 20 but they accepted a penalty to make it third and 24. Haugen responded with a 31 yard run on a toss to the right side that put the game away.

Buntje said the Athletics weren’t necessarily planning to ride Haugen, but an injury to Colton Scherer, who returned late in the game, forced them to move Garrett Jenkins to the outside which increased Haugen’s load.

“We weren’t expecting that many. We were hoping to get twenty out of him, but he was feeling good so he kept going,” Buntje said. ”You’ve also got to give Garrett Jenkins a lot of credit. He made a lot of blocks.”

STATS

L/P rushing: Damien Haugen, 25-for-135, TD; Garrett Jenkins, 10-for-33; Carter Guthmiller, 7-for-27, TD; Garrett Lester, 2-for-6

L/P passing: Guthmiller, 6-for-11, 27, TD

L/P receiving: Max Brennan, 1-for-20; Jenkins, 2-for-10; Ryan Rust, 2-for-5, TD; Haugen, 1-for-(-8)

Fumble recovery: Rust

Penalties: 8-for-70

L/O rushing: Kirk Nelson, 28-for-59; Mitch Scaglione, 6-for-32, TD; Thomas Mackey, 3-for-9; Lucas Roe, 3-for-8

L/O passing: Nelson, 2-for-7, 73

L/O receiving: Nelson, 1-for-49; Scaglione, 1-for-32

Penalties: 8-for-55

SCORING SUMMARY

L/O 0 0 8 0 — 8

L/P 6 8 0 6 — 20

First quarter

(L/P) 1:55 Haugen 13 run (run failed) (12 plays, 72 yards)

Second quarter

(L/P) 1:06 Guthmiller 3 pass to Rust (Jenkins run) (13 plays, 76 yards)

Third quarter

(L/O) 3:43 Scaglione 19 run (Nelson run) (8 plays, 67 yards)

Fourth quarter

(L/P) 11:10 Guthmiller 14 run (run failed) (4 plays, 29 yards)