Sterling falls short to Notre Dame despite defensive effort

STERLING — The Sterling defense played well enough to win on Friday night against Niles Notre Dame.

The offense and special teams, however, held the Golden Warriors back for the second straight week in a 17-0 loss to the Dons of the Chicago Catholic League.

Sterling (0-2) had just 106 yards of total offense as it gave up six sacks for 45 yards. A number of those came on third down as Sterling struggled to run the ball and finished with negative-33 net yards rushing.

Punting team issues also plagued Sterling again this week. The first score of the game came when a Gage Tate punt deep in Sterling territory was blocked and recovered by Luke Olson for a touchdown near the end of the first quarter.

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Dillon Gallagher’s four-yard run and a Matt Childers two-point rushing conversion made it 14-0 going into halftime. Collin Sorce’s 37-yard field goal late in the third quarter made it a three-score game that held until the end.

Sterling quarterback Drew Nettleton remained optimistic. He finished 14-of-20 for 139 yards, including a long pass of 33 yards to Jimmy Wadsworth, who finished with four catches for 78 yards.

“We’ve got a young team,” Nettleton said. “If we just keep working, week in and week out, we should be fine. We just have to keep going.”

The Dons (2-0) had 175 yards of total offense and 11 first downs.

“That’s a good team,” said Sterling coach Jon Schlemmer. “We’ve got to fix some things. There’s no magic potion out there that you can sprinkle on kids. When you play good people and you play good programs and good teams, they’re going to stress you. It’s about us learning from tonight.”

Being able to run the ball would go a long way for Sterling.

“That’s something we hang our hat on here and we’ve been really good at it since our staff has been together,” Schlemmer said. “That’s something that has to get better.

“If we do, it’s going to open up everything. It’s going to slow down the pass rush.”

One of Sterling’s best chances to score fell short after a botched exchange on fourth and two resulted in a 22-yard loss.

“We kind of changed personnel there for a minute,” Schlemmer said. “I probably should have kept Drew in there in that situation. ... I don’t know if I’ll sleep too much thinking about that but that was a good scoring chance down there.”

SHS also missed a 40-yard field goal attempt after a holding penalty and incomplete pass on third-and-13.

Despite some of the mistakes in other phases, the defense continued to play well. Jeremiah Muhammad had three tackles for a loss and nine tackles. Braden Birdsley had two sacks, and Landon Kukowski and Wadsworth had interceptions.

“I have to believe if our defense continues to play like that, we’ve going to find a way,” he said. “We’re going to keep knocking on the door. I’ll tell you right now, this defense ain’t going away and our offense is only going to get better.”

Sterling opens Western Big 6 Conference play against United Township (1-1) next week.

Nettleton believes this will continue to improve with experience.

“Just keep working as hard as we can,” he said. “That’s all I ask for.”