MIO AU SABLE - Aug. 28, 2009 - Three minutes into the third quarter of Friday's season-opening football contest, Whittemore-Prescott had a seemingly safe 27-0 lead over Mio AuSable.

The only question seemed to be whether or not running back Chris Downes would get enough carries to break the 200-yard rushing mark.

But as ESPN talking head Lee Corso might have said, not so fast.

Thanks in large part to a series of W-P turnovers, Mio quickly got back in the game, and despite being dominated statistically in nearly every category, the Thunderbolts came within less than a yard of stealing an improbable victory.

When they needed it most, W-P made a fourth quarter goal line stand to preserve a 27-22 victory and head to the bus with a huge sigh of relief.

"That was something else," said W-P coach Kevin Frederick. "I couldn't believe what I was watching. We felt pretty comfortable up 27, but that just goes to show you can't ever let up or think you have it."

Mio started making some noise on the drive following Downes' 74-yard punt return that gave the Cards a four-touchdown lead. Thunderbolt quarterback Grant Price kept the drive alive with a 10-yard run on 3rd-and-9 and Zac Bills' 24-yard run got Mio on the scoreboard midway through the third quarter. Bills also scored the two-point conversion to make it 27-8.

W-P looked to be in business again as it advanced to Mio's 27-yard line, but a botched option pitch in the face of heavy defensive pressure gave the Bolts the opening they needed. Price scooped up the ball and took it 74-yards for a touchdown. Two plays later, older brother Garret Price did likewise with a bad W-P snap, this time for 34 yards, to cut the W-P lead to just five.

"It seemed like whenever we fumbled, it would squirt away from our guys and bounce right into their hands," Frederick said. "You don't see two scoop-and-scores like that very often."

"We saw a few things to go after and got lucky with our all-out blitz two or three times," said Mio coach Jim Gendernalik. "I'm proud that what the kids did in that they didn't quit. But we need to correct our mistakes. We can't win games like this if we don't clean things up."

Mio had its golden opportunity in the fourth quarter when the Cards fumbled again -- their fourth of the second half -- and gave the Bolts possession on W-P's 29-yard line. Zach Pillars gave Mio a first-and-goal at the 3-yard line, but on the next play the Cards stacked up Bills at the 1. Two penalties against Mio set the Bolts back at the 11, Downes threw Pillars for a six-yard loss on the next play, and Mio couldn't convert on third or fourth down from the 17.

"The big thing was that the kids never started pointing fingers or getting on each other," Frederick said. "There's more encouragement going on than last year, and I think that helped."

"We've got four sophomores on our offensive line," Gendernalik said. "We had a couple of them jump and set us back 10 yards.

"(Youth) doesn't excuse it, and they know it. But it doesn't change the effort the guys gave."

W-P looked well on its way to a huge win with a dominant first half. The Cards ran up more than 260 yards of total offense, including 173 rushing yards by Downes in the first two quarters.

It wasn't a one-man show as quarterback Dylan DeBoever, in his first start, completed five passes to receivers Rumbold, Zack Morgan and Rumbold. DeBoever scored on runs of 17, 4 and 2 yards and Downes made all but one of his PAT kicks to give W-P a 20-0 halftime lead.

DeBoever finished with 95 aerial yards on 7-of-15 passing and ran for 29 more. Tommy Miracle paced the defense with 10 solo tackles and two assists with Josh Harrington adding five solos and four assists.

Bills led Mio (0-1) with 64 yards on 13 carries.

Downes, who finished with 222 rushing yards on 23 carries, seemed to put the game out of reach with his punt return touchdown three minutes into the third quarter.

Turns out the Cards (1-0) needed those points after all.