Lafayette Holds Mehlville, Stays Atop Suburban West

For two weeks, Lafayette’s game plan had been to ride to victory using the arm of standout quarterback Dominic Bisesi. But, this strategy was certain to change after a break in the senior’s non-throwing arm at Lindbergh last week.

So, when Mehlville came knocking on Friday night, seeking any signs of blood in the water, there wasn’t much surprise when the Lancers’ new helmsman, Matt Goro, simply handed the ball to tailback Deonte Robinson on the first play from scrimmage.

And for about five seconds—just long enough for Robinson to find a seam on the left side and scamper 40 yards through the open field—all seemed well for Lafayette. Until he was caught from behind, popping the ball onto the turf.

“I wasn’t really expecting it, and then I was hit from behind,” said Robinson, whose fumble led to a Mehlville recovery and subsequent touchdown. “But I had to recover from that and just wash it off. Got to keep on playing football.”

Be it rain from the skies or sweat from determination, Robinson washed it off just fine. The junior running back shook off his first-play snafu and was solid for the rest of the game, punching in all three of Lafayette’s scores in the 21-7 win.

(3-0) remained undefeated and atop the Suburban West Conference, with all three of its wins against conference foes. Mehlville fell to 1-2 on the season.

That’s not to say things looked pretty for the rest of the game for Lafayette. After the Mehlville recovery, the Panthers’ offense was quick and efficient in its 75-yard march back down the field. Tailback Dwayne Lewis pounded out two great runs of 29 and 14 yards, and fellow back Chayse Brown punched in the score from two yards out to give Mehlville the early 7-0 lead.

But despite Bisesi standing on the sidelines with his arm in a sling, Lafayette wasn’t so quick to abandon its reputation as an aerial offense. Goro came right out firing, connecting early and often with senior wideout William DuPont, who hauled in 6 receptions for 114 yards.

“I knew (Goro) could do it. All week he stepped in and was doing just as good as Dom, even though it’s tough to replace a guy like Dom,” DuPont said.

“All of us wide receivers, we have a lot of seniors, we told Matt ‘throw it our way, and we’re going to catch it for you. You can trust us.’ He did about as well as we could have asked for.”

Goro had just one hiccup in the first quarter, when DuPont’s route was undercut by Mehlville linebacker Dan Kerckhoff. His interception would have been returned for another Panthers’ score off a turnover, but DuPont chased him down 80 yards and tackled him on the 10-yard line.

The Lafayette defense stood stout, with Kevin Hampton’s sack on third down knocking Mehlville far enough back to miss the ensuing field goal attempt. And from there, the Lancers slowly began grinding the Panthers down.

Robinson got his first trip to paydirt with 7:58 left in the half, tying the game 7-7 for halftime. He didn’t have to wait long into the second half for his next score. Though technically receiving the kickoff in the second half, Mehlville failed to physically retrieve it, allowing the ball to plop down onto the wet field and Lafayette’s Kirk Bradley to race up the sidelines and recovered it on the Mehlville 19. Robinson scored two plays later from 10 yards out. His third touchdown was an 18-yard run off a solid cutback in traffic later that quarter, rounding out the 21-7 score.

Despite their efficiency on the opening drive, the Panthers struggled the rest of the game to move the ball, spinning their wheels in the second half. The ground attack between Lewis and Brown, though solid for the first two weeks, struggled to find running room at Lafayette.

“We made some nice plays early on, and did some good things, but we just let them back into the game too early,” said Mehlville coach Eric Meyer.

“They did a great job taking away the outside from our running backs. And we made some mistakes, too. We just needed to keep moving the chains, and we weren’t able to do that. You can’t just rely on one big play.”