Football: Barbs fall late at Lake Park for first loss of season

ROSELLE – For two quarters, it looked like the DeKalb football team would be cruising to its third straight win to start the season.

But then the Lake Park stepped up on both sides of the ball, erasing a three-touchdown deficit at the half and holding off a late DeKalb drive for a 28-21 loss for the Barbs on Friday.

DeKalb coach Matt Weckler said he thinks his team can learn from the experience of their first loss of the year.

"It teaches us lessons of getting better at what we need to do," Weckler said. "We've got conference coming up with Sycamore next week, and we're looking forward to it."

With the game tied at 21, DeKalb's Derek Kyler punted the ball down to the 3-yard line of the Lancers with 2:04 left. On the first play, quarterback Jackson Behles lobbed it about 35 yards down field to Johnny Pacione. Fellow Lancer receiver Danny Spejcher leveled the DeKalb defender with a block, Pacione broke away and sprinted the rest of the way for the score.

The Barbs (2-1) took over on their 42, and worked the ball up the field with short sideline passes, reaching the Lancer 25 with 8 seconds left. The ref stopped play and made top receiver Cole Tucker come off the field because his kneepads were out of place. Tucker took off his helmet and the Barbs were penalized 15 yards.

After a spike on third down from the 40 to allow Tucker back on the field, the Hail Mary pass was batted away and the Lancers walked away with the win.

Weckler said he was disappointed with the timing of the call.

"I said you could have called it at any point in the game, and that's when you call it?" Weckler said. "In the heat of battle, pads are going to adjust. I didn't disagree with the call, I disagreed with when they called it. But that doesn't have anything to do with the result of the game at all."

The Barbs exploded for three touchdowns in the second quarter, all by Jelante Young, to take a 21-0 lead into halftime. The Barbs started the third quarter with the ball, but Kyler threw his first interception of the season, and the Lancers (2-1) put together a long drive to score, converting on two fourth downs, including a 37-yard scoring pass from Behles to Spejcher on fourth and 2.

After a third-quarter score, the Lancers tied the game in the fourth on a wild drive that saw them facing separate third-and-22 and third-and-17 situations, converting both of them. Behles found Spejcher on a 5-yard pass for his second scoring catch of the game.

Lake Park coach Chris Roll said he was impressed with the way his team turned it around at halftime.

"We started slow for three weeks, and that I think was a testament to a great team," Roll said. "That first quarter was a good quarter for us but we kept messing it up. And that second quarter they kept throttling us."

Weckler said he knew the Lancers, who got off to rough starts in all three games this year, would turn it around.

"They came out ready to play and they wanted it more in the second half, that's what changed it," Weckler said. "We took it to them in the first half and did what we wanted to do. They made some great adjustments. We didn't give it to them. They took it. They deserved it because they beat us in all aspects of the game in the second half."

After being outgained 118-34 in the first quarter, the DeKalb offense exploded in the second quarter. Eleven of its first 13 plays of the second quarter went either a first down or a touchdown.

Young had 80 yards on the ground and three touchdowns in the quarter alone, and after an 0 for 3 first quarter, Kyler completed all four of his passes, including three deep to Cole Tucker.

The defense was just as strong. After allowing Jarkeyese Brackett 16 carries for 82 yards in the first, the Lancers managed just 76 yards of total offense and found themselves 21 points behind.

Brackett finished with 195 yards on 42 carries, while Behles threw for 339 yards. Kyler amassed 143 in the air for the game, and Young finished 123 yards on 16 carries and the three touchdowns.