Leyden net first win

Updated: October 4, 2011 6:48PM

A pair of gifts became the turning point for Leyden, which earned its first win of the 2011 football season with a 28-13 decision over host Morton in West Suburban Gold play Friday night.

Trailing 13-9 at halftime, the Eagles (1-5, 1-3) took advantage of consecutive offside penalties against Morton (2-4, 1-3) early in the second half. Leyden was lined up to punt on fourth down, but the combined 10 yards in penalties gave the Eagles a fresh set of downs at the Mustangs’ 27-yard line.

A 22-yard run by Mickey Gulo set up a 6-yard touchdown run by Leyden quarterback Joey Difronzo three plays later, and Krystian Chudoba added the point-after kick with 8 minutes, 42 second remaining in the third quarter to give the Eagles a 16-13 lead they would never relinquish.

“The two penalties on the punt were huge,” said Leyden coach Tom Cerasani. “That gave us another chance to keep the ball, and we took advantage of it.”

Neither team was able to generate much offense the remainder of the third quarter. Leyden increased its lead to 22-13 on the second play of the final period when Nelson Lugo blocked a punt by Morton’s Ismael Ledezma and recovered the ball at the Mustangs’ 1-yard line. Difronzo got into the end zone on the Eagles’ next play from scrimmage, increasing his team’s lead to nine points.

Leyden added another TD on a 23-yard run by Gulo (22 carries, 134 yards) with 7:05 left to seal the victory.

“We can smile now,” Lugo said after Leyden’s first win this season. “I feel relived. The difference was that we played well on both sides of the ball.”

Leyden took an early lead when Chudoba nailed a 48-yard field goal with 8:27 remaining in the first quarter to give the Eagles a 3-0 advantage.

Morton came back to take a 6-3 lead on a 30-yard touchdown run by Isaias Delgado with 7:19 to play in the first half. The Mustangs extended their lead to 13-3 with 1:31 left in the half on a 4th-down, 8-yard TD pass from Ledezma to Michael Herrera, followed by Fernando Martinez’s point-after kick.

But a 64-yard kickoff return by Leyden’s Jon Rodriguez gave the Eagles the ball at the Morton 33 with 1:19 left in the half. A six-play scoring drive was capped by Difronzo’s 11-yard TD pass to Danny Schoedel with 10 seconds remaining, allowing Leyden to pull within 13-9 at halftime.

“Scoring at the end of the first half was huge for us,” Cerasani said. “That definitely gave us some new life and more confidence to start the second half. Our defense did a great job the rest of the way, and we came up with a few key plays to score when we needed them.”

The Eagles will look to make it two wins in a row when they host winless Willowbrook at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

© 2012 Sun-Times Media, LLC. All rights reserved. This material may not be copied or distributed without permission. For more information about reprints and permissions, visit www.suntimesreprints.com. To order a reprint of this article, click here.