Lisle, Campbell blast previously undefeated Peotone, 24-0.

When the Peotone High School varsity football team left Kankakee County for Lisle Thursday afternoon, the Blue Devils were undefeated and tied atop the Illinois Central 8 Conference.

Sharing the IC8 penthouse with Wilmington (3-0, 3-0) and Coal City (3-0. 3-0), the Blue Devils were looking for a victory in DuPage County.

Sixteen seconds into the game, however, the Blue Devils trailed 8-0.

Lisle junior Cole Campbell electrified the small Lisle contingent at Benedictine University when he took the Peotone opening kickoff at his 10 yard line and raced 90-yards for the first of his three touchdowns on the night.

After senior Brett Weber (nine carries, 34 yards) converted the first of his two, 2-point conversions, the Lions led 8-0 with 10:44 left to play in the first quarter.

Campbell (13 carries, 84 yards, 3 TDs, 2-point conversion) scored from eight-yards out and then converted on the two-point conversion for a 16-0 Lions lead, with 4:44 in the first quarter.

Campbell scored his third touchdown of the game in 13 minutes of game time, from 15-yards out. Weber ran in his second two-point conversion for a 24-0 Lions lead with 11:02 remaining in the half to close out the scoring and lead Lisle to the 24-0 victory.

The Lisle (2-2, 2-2) defense, which picked up shutout number two on the season, was led by sophomore defensive back Dominic Nigro and senior linebacker Mike Walker. Nigro had two interceptions and Walker in his first action of the season coming off of injury had a pair of sacks and led a Lions defense which allowed 40 total yards of offense to the Blue Devils.

Peotone (3-1, 3-1) was 0-for-10 passing the ball to their own players, although the Blue Devils did complete a pair of passes to Nigro.

"This was a great win for us," Nigro said. "We really wanted to get the shutout. The interceptions were my first two of the season."

"The coaches deserve all the credit for my sacks," Walker said. "The defensive calls just opened me up for the quarterback sacks. We want to go to Streator next week and win for a winning 3-2 season."

Peotone had the ball for most of the second half, trying to no avail, to get on the scoreboard.

Lions sophomore quarterback Tyrese Watson (five carries, 23 yards) completed his only pass of the game to junior Gabe Quinones (five carries, 11 yards) for 10 yards.

The only blemish in the game for Campbell was a razzle-dazzle play called-up by the Lions Hall of Fame coach Paul Parpett that had Campbell throwing to a streaking Watson running a fly-pattern. Problem was, Campbell's pass was intercepted for the only Lions turnover.

"On the kickoff return, I received great blocking from all of my teammates, who made my kickoff return touchdown possible," Campbell said. "What a great win and what about the play of Dom (Nigro). Two big interceptions. We really wanted to get the shutout.

"We want to have a great week of practice and then go down to Streator and win for a winning, 3-2 season."

"Cole's interception was on me. It was not a very good play call," Parpett said. "Cole got us started with the 90-yard kickoff return and everyone played so well. We got all the seniors in tonight and this great win is for them."

The Lions close out the 2020-21 season, with an 80-mile bus ride to Streator, in their IC-8 finale, on Friday, April 16.