With many of the OHS football players new to playing at the varsity level, it was a battle of effort vs. experience at the Friday night home opener against Lindbergh on Aug. 18.

After multiple turnovers and penalties, the experience of Lindbergh won the battle 41-7.

“We have a lot of guys that haven’t played varsity,” Head Coach Arlee Conners said. “It’s one thing to practice a lot of things, but when we get to actual competition and you get a crowd around you and people cheering and lights get bright, sometimes people cramp up. I think we did that tonight.”

Lindbergh scored the first touchdown of the game with 7:53 still to go in the first quarter. About three minutes later, a punt by Ryan Gallagher (12) was blocked by Lindbergh player Tyler Haase, allowing Haase to run for ten yards for a touchdown. The PAT was no good, making the score 13-0 with 5:38 left in the first quarter. Less than two minutes later, another Lindbergh touchdown soon followed. The first quarter ended with a score of 20-0.

The Tigers came close to their first touchdown in the second quarter after quarterback Jordan Jost (12) passed to Matt Paule (11) who ran 8 yards from the 26 yard line. Jost then ran an additional three yards, followed by another four yards to get them to the 11 yard line. After Jost passed the ball to Paule once more, they reached the nine yard line before Lindbergh took possession. The score was still 20-0 at the end of the half.

OHS came back after the half and reached the 12 yard line. Jost then passed to Gerrelle Golden (11) who ran for a touchdown with 8:33 left in the third quarter. The PAT by Ryan Gallagher (12) was good, making the score 20-7.

However, the Lindbergh Flyers also came back stronger in the third quarter and added three additional touchdowns to the scoreboard, making the final score 41-7.

“We hurt ourselves more than they hurt us, and that’s something we can do better and we will get better at,” Conners said. “It’s unfortunate we had to come out today and lose the way we did. But I’m confident in these guys that we will be able to bounce back and come back stronger next week.”

OHS will be playing at Hillsboro on Aug. 25 at 7 pm.