Closer call: La Salle-Peru tops Ottawa 14-7 in 126th meeting

OTTAWA — The La Salle-Peru football scored the go-ahead touchdown with just under six minutes to play in the third quarter.

Then the Cavaliers defense came up with key plays on the final three Ottawa drives in an eventual 14-7 Interstate 8 Conference victory at King Field on Friday night in their second meeting of the season and the 126th all-time get-together of the two longtime rivals.

L-P – which improved to 3-3 overall and 1-2 in I-8 play – has now won 11 straight in the series and holds a 71-50-5 margin all-time.

Ottawa falls to 1-5 and 0-3.

“I’m happy with the win, but the way we performed was not anything close to Cavalier football,” L-P coach Jose Medina said. “We’re back to .500 and have Sycamore coming to our place next Friday, so we have another tough task in front of us.”

The contest was marred by 22 total penalties, with the Cavs whistled 12 times for 111 yards and the Pirates 10 for 85.

“It was a very choppy game with all the penalties, but in these types of games when that happens, you just have to find a way to keep momentum going,” Medina said. “Anytime it’s Ottawa and L-P, you go into the game figuring it’s going to be a battle.

“It was sure one tonight.”

After a scoreless opening quarter, L-P got on the scoreboard with 5:12 remaining in the second on a 15-yard run by freshman quarterback Marion Perisch, who finished with 103 yards on 16 carries and went 10-of-19 passing for 104.

Ottawa tied the game three minutes later when Weston Averkamp smashed in from the 1. The scoring run capped a five-play, 83-yard drive in which Ottawa junior QB Mark Munson completed a 55-yard pass to Owen Sanders and a 32-yard pass to Averkamp.

Munson finished the game 13 of 24 for 188 yards, with five of those completions to Andrew Vercolio for 45 yards.

“It was a tough game to get any rhythm with all the stoppages, but I thought we did a pretty good job of playing through that,” Ottawa coach Chad Gross said. “The first time we played L-P, Mark left the game with an injury early in the first quarter and we became one-dimensional, but having him healthy throughout gave us a pretty good balance, and we were able to mix things up.

“I thought we did a much better job than the first time matching their physicality. I feel we did a much better job of being tough on both sides of the ball.”

The second half began with each side forcing a three-and-out, but L-P used three straight completions by Persich to move the ball from the L-P 45 to the Ottawa 20.

Persich then stepped up in the pocket and fired a TD pass to a wide-open Cordell Wheatly with 5:42 left in the third.

The L-P defense stopped the hosts on fourth down at their own 37, 40 and 34 on the final trio of drives.

L-P held a 305-276 advantage in total yards, including 201-88 on the ground.

L-P senior running back Adrian Arozola was the workhorse, as he rushed 20 times for 98 yards.

“My offensive line did a good job, and I felt like I ran the ball hard all game,” Arozola said. “I was able to break some tackles a few times and pick up some extra yards.”

Medina said while he was disappointed in a lot of things, he was happy with how the underclassmen performed.

“I was proud that we had some sophomores step up for us this week with all the injuries we’ve had,” Medina said. “The injury bug has hit us hard this year, but it is all about the next man up. That’s what it was about for us tonight.”

Next week L-P hosts Sycamore, while Ottawa is at Morris.