The 18th seeded Curie Condors came into Saturday’s first round playoff matchup with a trick up their sleeve. Rather than sending the ball deep on the opening kickoff, the Condors risked giving LT solid field position and surprised the Lions with an onside kick. The risk paid off for the Condors, who recovered the onside attempt and took over on offense before most LT fans even sat down in their seats.
From that point on, the game was all Curie. The Condors would go on to beat the 14th seeded Lions 46-28, thanks to an unstoppable running game. In fact, Curie only attempted one pass all night, which came on a spike ball towards the end of the first half. By running so much clock with their ground game, the Condors were able to keep the ball out of Lions quarterback Ben Bryant’s ‘18 hands as much as possible.
Despite a successful onside kick attempt of their own to start off the second half, LT was unable to generate a late comeback. A costly Bryant fumble, combined with the consistent Curie running game, were too much for the Lions to overcome in the second half.
With this win, Curie moves on to host the three seeded Marist RedHawks in the second round of the IHSA 8A state playoffs. The date and time of the matchup have yet to be announced.
The loss for the Lions eliminates them from the state playoffs and they end their season with a 7-3 record.