By Mark Gregory
@Hear_The_Beard
Jake Ventrella
Lisle entered into its week nine matchup with Streator needed a win to reach a 5-4 record and qualify for the IHSA playoffs.
The Lions took the field with players out of position for the game and found themselves down 13-0 after the first half.
Everything clicked in the second half, however, and Lisle outscored Streator 28-0 after intermission and walked away with a 28-13 win.
“We knew this was our playoff game,” said Lisle coach Paul Parpet. “We had to be in a position to get our fifth win.”
Lisle did earn its fifth win and became playoff eligible, however, the Lions are one of only 10 teams in the state to have five wins and not earn a playoff berth.
Lisle finished with 36 playoff points, which are the total number of opponents’ wins on the season, and are tied with Mattoon, South Fork, Princeton and Bloomington as the school’s missing out by one point.
With the tiebreaker being defeated opponents’ wins, Lisle was the third of 10 teams to be left out.
The Lions walked into the must-win game without starting quarterback Mark McGrath, who was limited with an ankle injury and took snaps at receiver, while his sophomore brother, Jay, was at quarterback.
“Even if I couldn’t walk today, I was going to dress just so I could be there, but I rehabbed really hard today and I knew I couldn’t play quarterback, but thought I could play receiver,” Mark McGrath said. “We know how really good players they are.”
Junior Jake Ventrella took the reigns at running back for the first time all season and carried the ball 27 times for 171 yards.
“The coaches prepared us really well for this and they gave me an opportunity and I thought we executed especially in the second half,” Ventrella said. “In the first half we started slow and we went in the locker room and realized this could be our last game and the seniors wanted us to step up and we did.”
One of those seniors was Mark McGrath who addressed the team right before they took the field.
“Coach talked to us in the locker room and when we got to the field me and a couple of the seniors stressed that this is it and don’t let this be the last game, don’t let it be our last half,” he said. “The first half was hard to watch and pretty frustrating. In the second half, we rallied the troops and everyone from top to bottom stepped up. The sidelines got a lot of energy and we dominated the second half. It was awesome.”