“I didn’t feel like we ever got into an offensive rhythm,” Linsly head coach BJ Depew said. “But the kids played real gutsy. They really did. I’m proud of this as a game one effort, but we have a lot of work to do in terms of fixing our execution moving forward.”

The Cadets had their fair share of moments Saturday, but it seemed that whenever Linsly made a big play, the see-saw would go the other way, putting them behind the eight-ball again.

In the first quarter, Linsly put together an impressive goalline stand, repelling Westinghouse at their own one-yard line for a turnover on downs, only to suffer a safety to go down 10-0 with 3:30 in the quarter.

In the second quarter, Linsly forced a Westinghouse fumble and recovered it with good field position, but Westinghouse snagged an interception on the very next play.

Linsly turned the ball over five times on Saturday, a massive hurdle for any team to overcome– though the Cadets also forced four turnovers of their own, two turnovers-on-downs and two interceptions, both from Linsly’s Chris Upton, who was also Linsly’s leading receiver with eight catches for 60 yards.

“They were huge because they stopped momentum,” Depew said of his team’s turnovers “And most of them were real head scratcher moments– ‘How did we even do that?’

“Those are the kind of things, those major mistakes have to be eliminated. Credit to Westinghouse for taking it away a couple times. They popped one loose and made a nice interception over the middle. But, on several of those occasions, it was really a miscue on our part that led to the interception.So some of those are correctable, and some come with the game.”

Westinghouse opened the game with a drive down to Linsly’s one yard-line, John Bailey finishing the drive with a touchdown. Quarterback Zahir Ishmail ran in the two-point conversion for a quick 8-0 lead, and after a safety Westinghouse led 10-0. K’shawn Hawkins caught a touchdown pass in the corner of the end zone to put Westinghouse ahead 18-0 after the first quarter.

Linsly got on the board midway through the second quarter, senior quarterback Braden Wade throwing a pass out wide to sophomore Skyler Hunter, who sped upfield for a 25-yard touchdown.

18-7 is where the score would stay heading into halftime.

Hunter had two catches for 36 yards.

Wade finished the game 18/43 for 147 yards and a score.

Ishmail ran in a four-yard touchdown in the third quarter, though Linsly defended the two-point run attempt to limit the lead to a 24-7 showing with 7:15 to play in the third quarter.

Linsly’s defense pulled off another fourth-down stop inside their own redzone, setting up their offense at the Cadet 14 yard-line, but Westinghouse’s Dereon Germany snatched momentum right back for his team with an interception a few plays later.

Hawkins made the biggest play of the night a few minutes into the fourth quarter, taking a short pass and housing it 88 yards for a touchdown, bringing the game’s score where it would stay, 32-7.

“I was proud of how physical we played,” Depew said. “[Westinghouse is] a pretty powerful and fast team and I thought defensively we had some really good moments, came up big in some key spots. Didn’t necessarily always execute well, had a lot of miscues on offense.”

Hunter and George Mamakos each had sacks for Linsly.

Linsly was not able to get their ground game going, negative net rushing yardage on Saturday.

The Cadets will go on the road for the first time in their young season when they travel to face Brooke (0-1) next week.

“We’ll be ready to get back out there after this one,” Depew said. “Because I feel like in moments like today, we recognized that we could play with a really good football team. Our kids are gonna be excited to get back on the field. It’s hard to go back to practice after you play that first one, but, you know, teams always make a lot of progress from week one to week two in that practice. We’ve never been to Brooke before, we’ve never been up to that stadium. We’ll be ready to play on a Friday night.”