For the second straight game and the third time this season, the Oakville Senior High School football team was shut out in the first half, falling 24-14 to Lafayette Friday night on the road.

“It’s pretty frustrating,” Oakville head coach Arlee Conners said. “We allowed the elements to get to our heads. I think we made way too many excuses about the weather and it’s definitely something that we’ve got to work on.”

Kyle Green gave Lafayette a 7-0 lead with 3:26 to play in the first quarter on a one-yard run. Green carried the ball 20 times for 59 yards.

The Lancers increased their lead to 14-0 when Jacob Ripp busted out a 21-yard punt return with 50 seconds left in the first quarter. A 24-yard field goal by kicker Nick Aussieker then put the Lancers up 17-0.

Green scored again on a 23-yard pass from Justin Oliver with 48 seconds remaining in the first half.

Oakville finally got on the scoreboard midway with a five-yard pass from quarterback Joe Plassmeyer to Mike Deguire with 5:41 left in the third quarter.

“The guys showed a lot of determination because they fought to get down to the red zone and they deserved to score,” Conners said. “I just wish that we would have been down there earlier in the game.”

Plassmeyer completed 8 of 23 passes for 72 yards, two touchdowns and one interception.

“You’ve got to give Joe credit because it wasn’t easy out there,” Conners said. “He hung in there and made plays for us.”

Deguire’s touchdown catch was one of two against the Lancers.

“Mike’s been there for us all year long,” Conners said. “He pretty much delivers for us in every game.”

Oakville scored again when Plassmeyer connected with Paul Taylor on a 33-yard pass with 11 minutes left in the game.

Taylor also carried the ball five times for 10 yards.

“Paul’s another kid where we try to get the ball to him as much as we can,” Conners said. “We were able to get him isolated on the route and that’s when Joe hit him for the touchdown.”

The Tigers return to action at 7 p.m. Fri-day when they play host to Northwest (1-6, 1-5 Suburban West), which has struggled throughout most of the season, including last Friday’s 35-12 loss at Kirkwood.

“Northwest is a big and solid team with a very solid running attack,” Conners said. “They play hard and the games that they’ve lost, they’ve still play those teams really tough.”