Oakville Falls to 3-4 with Loss at Lafayette

It didn’t really matter which unit was on the field for the Lafayette Lancers in their 50-0 Friday night home win over the Oakville Tigers.

Whether it was the offense, defense or special teams, Lafayette found several ways to punch the ball into the end zone. The blowout loss dropped Oakville’s record to 3-4 (2-3 Suburban West Conference), while Lafayette improved to 6-1 (6-0 SWC).

Oakville was without coach Arlee Conners, who served a one-game suspension after being ejected from last week. Conners’ replacement was defensive coordinator Kevin Niedringhaus, who couldn’t get the Tigers on-track against the Lancers.

“We probably won’t even watch this film,” Niedringhaus said. “There’s no point in it. Don’t dwell on this. We’ll move forward from there and start getting ready for Fox. That’s all we can do.”

Lafayette’s high-powered offense jumped on the Tigers early and often in the first quarter. Deonte Robinson scored his first of three rushing touchdowns on a 3-yard scamper up the middle with 7:18 to go in the first quarter. Daniel Menees’ extra point made it 7-0.

Oakville went three-and-out on its next possession. Although the Tigers lined up in punt formation on fourth-and-10, senior Javon Henderson tried to run for a first down, but was stopped short.

The Lancers used the excellent field position to their advantage. On the very next play from scrimmage after Oakville’s turnover on downs, Robinson took a handoff to his left, cut back to the right, eluded a couple of Tiger defenders and ran 14 yards to put the Lancers up 14-0.

After another Oakville three-and-out and botched punt attempt, sophomore Isaac Dozier rescued the Tigers by picking off QB Matthew Goro.

But the Lancer defense stood tall and forced another Henderson punt attempt. Lafayette’s Markuice Savage hauled in the punt at his own 38-yard-line, then dashed down the left sideline for a 62-yard score. With 21 seconds left in the first quarter, Lafayette was up 21-0.

The Lancers tacked on two more touchdowns in the second quarter to go into halftime with a 35-0 edge. Robinson scored his third TD of the game on a 1-yard rush with 3:50 left in the second quarter. Less than two minutes later, Goro threw a 26-yard strike to William DuPont.

Oakville’s offense had averaged 32.7 points over the last three games, but the Tigers couldn’t figure out Lafayette’s defense, which has allowed 14.3 points per game this season.

Sophomore QB Andy Oliver was sacked on the first play of the second half. On the very next play, Oliver was intercepted by 6-foot-5-inch defensive lineman Gabe Kuhn, who rumbled into the end zone from 18 yards out.

“They just shut up every hole and they kept blitzing,” Oliver said. “We had no time to do anything. There was nowhere to run or pass. We just weren’t fast enough for them, and they kept getting to me.”

Oakville senior left tackle Andrew Bick said the offensive line struggled to contain the blitzing Lancer linebackers.

“Just as a whole, we weren’t clicking,” Bick said. “Everyone had their own little mistakes. We should have blocked better, that was one thing. We just need to come together and come back for Fox next week in district play.”

Lafayette completed its scoring with 3:13 left in the third quarter. On a fourth-and-3 play, Kevin Hampton galloped 7 yards to make it 50-0.

Oakville will look for a bounce-back effort in their Oct. 14 game at Fox (0-6), which marks the opening of district play. Oakville’s other district opponents are Northwest (0-7) and Eureka (5-2).

The only other time Oakville was shut out and blown out in a game this year was their . The Tigers can take solace in the fact that they rebounded from that thumping by beating Marquette 28-26 the following week.

Niedringhaus hopes that district play means new beginnings for the Tigers.

“It’s a fresh start,” Niedringhaus said. “It’s not a good way to go into districts, but it is a fresh start. We’ve got to build on something. Hopefully, we can put this behind us and move forward.”