LISBON – It’s always a great feeling for high school football teams to start the season with a victory. But when you are christening a new turf stadium, winning the first game is a perfect way to do it.

The Lisbon Blue Devils broke a tie late in the first quarter with two impressive drives in the second quarter to go up 16 at halftime and then held on for a solid 40-25 victory over the Windham Bombers.

“It is extremely important. You always preach the whole offseason that you want to start 1-0 and we are fortunate to be able to do that,” Devils coach Matt Altomare remarked. “It sets a tone, and it builds for next week. A lot of people came to see the new stadium, so it feels good.”

Following a 6-yard touchdown pass from Lisbon quarterback Trevor Siefke to Logan Stauffer. Windham answered with a 35-yard touchdown pass from Wyatt Hanshaw to Brandon Petrich to tie the game at 6 with 3:59 left in the first quarter. The Devils launched their next two drives for scores.

The first was an 83-yard drive on 15 plays with Dailey plowing into the end zone from 3-yards out. A Siefke two-point conversion run gave the Devils a 14-6 lead with 5:04 left in the second quarter.

“I think offensively the biggest thing we can take away from this game is that we are able to run the ball. I hate to hark back to previous seasons, and even in our scrimmages, we struggled with that. So, we challenged our linemen who did just an awesome job tonight for our backs,” Altomare said.

With just two minutes remaining in the half, the Devils scored again, but this time it was a quick strike offense that did the trick. Seifke hit Stauffer on a 24-yard pass and then a 32-yard aerial to put the Devils at the Bomber’s 15-yard line. From there Seifke took it himself on a run around the right end and staked the Devils to a 22-6 halftime advantage.

But the Bomber’s Chase Eye caused the Devils issues all night, and on the opening kickoff of the second half, he took the ball 82-yards for a touchdown. That cut the Devil’s lead down to just 10-points at 22-12.

The Devils would answer with two consecutive scoring drives again as Dailey would score from 4-yards out with 4:49 remaining in the third quarter to make it 28-12. Haiden Colvin then blasted through the middle of the Bomber’s defense on a 42-yard scamper to make it 34-12 with 10:45 left in the fourth quarter.

“We have a fullback that was powering through the line in Haiden Colvin. The running game worked the whole night,” Dailey said.

The Bombers, despite numerous starters out with injuries kept fighting as they scored on a 58-yard pass with 9:36 remaining in the game. They would also add a 78-yard fumble scoop and return with just 3:10 remaining in the contest.

“There are some things we need to clean up,” Altomare stated. “It wasn’t scheme things, it wasn’t lack of playing hard, and it wasn’t talent. We have to clean some things up for next week.”

Sandwiched in between those two Bombers scores was an 8-yard run by Dailey. He would rush for 126 yards and score 3 touchdowns in the game.

The Blue Devils look to keep the momentum going again next Friday when they travel to Fairport Harbor. The Bomber’s next game is at Rittman on Friday night.