Quinn Coleman said it best after No. 4 Lisbon beat Pekin 28-15 on Friday, Sept. 27, at Walmer Field.

“We’re fixin’ to win the district,” Coleman said. “And that was an important game right there.”

The clash of undefeated teams went for the Lions, who made some big plays early to hand the Panthers their first loss.

Pekin’s first three drives ended in a blocked punt by Gage Holub, a fourthdown sack by Chase McFarlane, and an interception by Coleman.

“It wasn’t pretty all the time, but we sure were gritty,” Lisbon coach Dylan Hastings said. “We made big plays when we needed to.”

Pekin’s talented senior quarterback Will Adam finished with 140 yards passing and just 19 yards rushing.

Adam had a big pass to Nolan Glick for 37 yards that put the Panthers in the red zone. But on fourth-and-4, McFarlane came up with the sack. He saw Adam was about to try to scramble for a first down, and dove in like an angry hornet.

“We were practicing that all week,” McFarlane said. “My job this week was to stop the run and be a quarterback spy. And that’s what I did.”

That stop led to the first Lisbon touchdown. Tiernan Boots had a 19-yard score to cap an 8-play, 80-yard drive.

The next Panthers drive ended when Coleman read the quarterback and picked off a running back screen.

“We saw that on film and I just read it,” Coleman said. “Someone tipped the ball and I got it.”

“That was actually something we remembered from last year that we got hurt on,” Hastings said. “That quarterback does something a little different when he throws that screen. Quinn just put himself in the right place. Great job by him.”

That pick (and a face mask penalty) set Lisbon up first and goal, and Boots scored from the one to make it 14-0.

The Lions added a third touchdown on an 8-play, 79-yard drive. It was capped by a 27-yard touchdown run by quarterback Dakota Clark. It was 21-0 at half.

But Pekin wasn’t done quite yet. They took their first drive of the second half 80 yards in six plays and scored on a 6-yard run by Glick. After scoring on the conversion run, Lisbon still led 21-8.

“We told the boys at halftime that Pekin is great football team,” Hastings said. “We told boys they are not going to quit. They are going to make adjustments. We told them there is a possibility they will score. And it happened.”

The next Pekin drive got into Lisbon territory, but was halted when D-lineman Jacob Walerius got his hand on a fourth-down pass attempt.

In the fourth quarter, Lisbon turned the second punt block of the game by Holub into a 3-play, 22-yard drive and another Boots TD. It was 28-8 with 3:59 to play.

Pekin got a 63-yard bomb from Adam to Alijah Brock to provide the final margin. Daylin Schaefer recovered the onside kick attempt.

“Really, at the end of the day, we stuck together as a team, and when adversity got tight, things like that, the boys came together and we overcame,” Hastings said. “A good team win.”

Boots finished with 163 rushing yards on 28 carries. Clark had 92 yards on 15 carries.

Lisbon did have an unsightly 101 penalty yards thanks a handful of pass interference flags. (Pekin had 10 penalties for 69 yards.)

“We knew they were going to try to spread us out and throw it deep,” Hastings said. “We knew those penalties might happen. … There were a lot more than I would necessarily like, but we’ll clean that stuff up.”

There will be time to fix mistakes. The Lions finish Class A District 5 play with a trip to Wapello (2-5), at home against Danville (3-2), and at Van Buren (1-4).

“We told the boys after this game, you took care of business tonight, and you control your fate,” Hastings said.