Oakville to Make Adjustments After Season-Opening Loss

The Oakville football team was outplayed in nearly every phase of their 42-0 season-opening loss to Lindbergh Friday at Oakville High School. The Flyers scored early and often against the Tigers’ defense, while Oakville’s offense had a difficult time moving the ball.

One of the bright spots for Oakville was the play of junior running back Moe LaGrand, who did find some success on the ground. LaGrand carried the ball 16 times for 81 yards.

For Conners, it’s back to the drawing board, as he’ll have to prepare his squad for a road game against Marquette (1-0) on Sept. 2.

“We tell them that we’ve got a long season ahead of us,” Conners said. “It’s just about making adjustments. One thing I will say is physically, we didn’t get beat. We got beat mentally, and those are things we can fix. When you just physically get beat, that’s something you can’t do anything about.”

It was a near flawless performance by the Flyers, who defeated their Suburban West Conference rival for the fifth straight time. Lindbergh senior QB Peter Simpson led the onslaught by going 6 of 11 for 178 yards and three touchdowns.

“The line was just blocking really good,” Simpson said. “I had all the time to make my reads. When I was looking out there, the receivers were making good cuts. It was just really easy for me to get them the ball when everybody was doing their job.”

The Flyers opened the scoring seven minutes into the first quarter when Simpson found senior running back Grant Krueger for a 25-yard touchdown.

“(Krueger) didn’t get to play last year, but he would have been the starter,” Lindbergh coach Tom Beauchamp said. “We’re getting him back. He’s a stud.”

The score remained 7-0 until five minutes into the second quarter. Simpson threw a deep ball to senior wide receiver Jordan Goodman, who came down with the catch and scampered into the end zone for a 58-yard score.

Lindbergh recovered an Oakville fumble less than a minute later, and a 26-yard pass from Simpson to senior wide receiver Blake Beauchamp put the Flyers up 21-0.

“Defenders were out of position, allowing receivers to get behind them,” Oakville coach Arlee Conners said. “And then you’ve got no pass rush. You’ve got a quarterback who’s got all day to throw, and he’s picking whatever receiver he wants to throw to. It’s kind of hard for a defensive back to cover.

“We had holes all over the place. We (had) bad coverage, a bad pass rush, bad offensive plays, bad special teams plays. I mean you name it, we did it out there today.”

Lindbergh completed the first-half scoring when senior defensive back Jack Manley intercepted a pass by Oakville junior Brendan Jost and proceeded to race down the left sideline for a 60-yard touchdown.

Although the Tigers tried to get fired up for the second half, Lindbergh thwarted any hopes of an Oakville comeback on the first play of the third quarter. Lindbergh sophomore Garrett Krueger took the kickoff 97 yards to the house to extend Lindbergh’s lead to 35-0.

The Flyers completed the scoring four minutes later when junior running back Kevin Rogers scored from 38 yards out. Lindbergh’s next game will be at home against Lafayette (1-0) on Sept. 2.

“It’s a good opener,” Tom Beauchamp said. “Oakville always has a good team; we know they’re a good team. When you beat a quality team, it’s one of those things that makes you feel good about the whole night.”