Lebanon’s defense came up big and the offense played just well enough to to get the job done Friday as the Warriors finally shook off their early season woes with a 20-13 Mid-Willamette Conference win over Silverton.

The Warriors slowly built a 20-0 lead, but had to hold on at the end as Silverton rallied in the fourth quarter.

“We’ve still got some things to do,” said Warrior coach Rob Allen. “Our kids believe we’re still in this thing.”

Finally getting in the win column helps feed that belief. With three of its losses by a single point the Warriors Allen figures his team has played pretty well. Friday’s win only adds to that feeling.

“Our younger guys are starting to pick things up and a win is great for confidence,” he emphasized.

Getting that first win wasn’t as easy as it appeared to be at the outset. It took Lebanon just under four minutes to grab the lead.

The Warriors drove the 65 yards on just 6 plays after the kickoff behind Brett Seiber’s blasts up the middle and quick sideline passes from quarterback Russell Duerr to Derek VanAntwerp.

That passing combination finished off the drive with a 12-yard score and the only touchdown of the first half.

Not that it couldn’t have been more. Both teams struggled with consistency.

Lebanon fell victim to turnovers, while the Foxes hurt themselves with penalties.

Twice the Warriors saw drives stopped with fumbles, one deep in their own territory. The Foxes suffered five key penalties -—three of them majors — and never really mounted a first-half threat.

Much of Silverton’s offensive problems were caused by the Warrior defense. Mainly linebacker Steve Pyle.

Pyle spent much of the night in the Silverton backfield and twice singlehandedly thwarted drives by catching running backs behind the line of scrimmage. He finished the night with three tackles for loss and one sack.

“Defense came up big for us. They made some big plays when they had too,” Allen said.

Lebanon seemed to finally have the game under control with a strong third quarter.

The ground work of Seiber, again moved the ball on its opening possession.

This time after a Silver Fox punt rolled dead on the Lebanon 10. With Seiber doing the bulk of the damage on the ground and a big pass play the Warriors chewed up six minutes of clock with Duerr sliding in from a yard out for the score.

Duerr escaped a near sack and hit a wide open Justin Estes for a big 35-yard gain to set up the TD.

The defense stepped up again minutes later holding Silverton on downs. A bad snap on the punt gave the Lebanon another opportunity on the Silver Fox 15.

Duerr again finished it off with a 9-yard touchdown sprint.

“Turnovers kept it going for both teams out there. We had a lot of yards but we didn’t finish things very well,” sighed Allen.

And Silverton had something left in the final quarter.

The Silver Foxes scored twice as their relentless passing game finally clicked for a pair of touchdowns. An onside kick attempt at 2:08 landed in Estes’ hands, however and the Warriors ran out the clock.

Sieber led the Warrior offense with 147 yards. Lebanon rushed for 232 yards and Duerr threw for another 66.

Silverton went to the air finishing with 157 yards and two touchdowns on just 11 completions. The 13 points were the first Silverton has scored in its last three games.

The Warriors (1-4, 1-1) will try to build on their win at home against next Friday against South Albany (2-2, 1-1).

Warriors 20, Silver Foxes 13

Silverton 0 0 0 13 - 13

Lebanon 6 0 14 0 - 20

First quarter

L - VanAntwerp 12 pass from Duerr. (run failed). 8:48

Third quarter

L - Duerr 1 run. (Seiber run). 4:02

L - Duerr 9 run (run failed). :30

Fourth quarter

S - Toney 19 pass from Ferguson (kick failed). 10:01

S - B. Kuenzi 35 pass from Ferguson (Whitaker kick). 2:08.

Statistics

Rushing: Silverton 31 - 87. Kester 20 - 76; T. Kuenzi 5 - 14; Starr 1 - 10; Sinn 1 - 2; Wells 1 - 1. Lebanon 54 - 209. Seiber 24 - 147; Duerr 11 - 48; Bitterman 9 - 20; Stubbs 4 - 11; Castro 1 - 5; Fontanos 1 - 1.

Passing: Silverton 8 - 29 - 157 - 1 - 1. Individual: Ferguson 8 - 25 - 157 - 1 - 2; J. Sinn 0 - 4 - 0 -0 - 0. Lebanon 6 - 11 - 76 - 1 - 1. Individual: Duerr 6 - 11 - 76 - 1 - 1.

Receiving: Silverton B. Kuenzi 4 - 87; Paradis 2 - 20; Kester 1 - 31; Tony 1 - 19. Lebanon VanAntwerp 5 - 41; Estes 1 - 35