MABEL The Lyle/Pacelli football team got off to a slow start Friday night, and that proved to be too hard to overcome as it lost to the Mabel/Canton Cougars 51-22.

The Athletics (1-6 overall) had several three-and-outs in the first half and also turned the ball over on downs. They recovered two fumbles but could not do anything with the ball.

The Cougars (3-4 overall) jumped out to a 25-0 lead late in the second quarter after RB Dalton Stoen had several big runs followed by touchdowns of five and one yards in the second quarter.

The Athletics looked like they were finally getting some ball movement figured out before the break; however, Quarterback Carter Guthmiller threw a last-second pick to Tyler Spande that ended the first half.

“We started slow,” Athletics head coach Mark Buntje said. “We didn’t play very well the first half. But the second and third quarter we came out and played hard.”

Sophomore Andy Davidson stepped in and contributed a lot as the Athletics started to move the ball more effectively on the ground and in the screen game. Davidson ripped off a 27 yard run early in the third to bring the game back to 25-6. Davidson carried nine times for 129 yards, making him the fourth player for Lyle Pacelli to break 100 yards this season.

“We weren’t expecting a game like that out of Andy,” Buntje said. “It seems like somebody different steps up each week.”

Yet the Cougars ground game proved to be much too tough with its three headed attack. Stoen, Spande and Andy Otterness ran for 201, 115 and 70 yards respectively. Spande had three rushing touchdowns in the second half (two in the fourth quarter). His final run, 40 yards, put the Cougars up 51-14.

The Athletic’s Davidson turned the corner and hugged the sideline for a 68-yard touchdown with 6:07 in the fourth quarter to bring the game to 51-22, but the Athletic’s momentum picked up much too late in the game.

“We just gotta focus on Leroy right now this week,” Buntje said. “We played them week one and obviously a lot’s changed since then, so we just gotta try to get our guys healthy again and be ready to play again next Wednesday on a short week.”

The Athletics were without starters Michael Hutchinson (shoulder) and Danny Davidson (concussion). Buntje hopes that both will be ready for next week.

STATS

L/P rushing: Andy Davidson, 9-for-129, 3 TD; Garrett Jenkins, 16-for-69; Carter Guthmiller, 6-for-39; Colton Scherer, 1-for-5; Damien Haugen, 4-for-(-2); Sean Shapiro, 1-for-(-1)

L/P passing: Guthmiller, 7-for-18, 43, INT

L/P receiving: Scherer, 3-for-27; Jenkins, 3-for-10; Ryan Rust, 1-for-6