Campbell's Eric Ngwa (30) wraps up Inter-Lakes/Moultonborough's Tommy Broidy during Saturday's Division III season opener for both teams. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

LITCHFIELD – One high school team that had a true quarterback faced a team that basically didn’t on Saturday, and the team that did pulled out a 33-22 win – basically because o the quarterback.

Yes, the Inter-Lakes/Moultonborough Lakers and Campbell Cougars couldn’t be more different in their offensive approach, but it was the Lakers and their junior signal-caller Kiernan Donnelly who opened the Divsion III season with a win.

Donnelly went 13 of 22 for195 yards and three touchdowns, most of that yardage in a 25-16 first half for the visitors, who once again prevailed on the Cougars’ home turf after leaving here in the postseason with a stunning 19-16 win.

“At the end of the day, those guys (the Lakers) worked all summer, Donnelly’s a very good quarterback, he was putting the ball in fantastic spots,” Campbell coach Glen Costello said. “One of the best teams in the division, and we’ll go from here.

“A bunch of kids played their first varsity game in the secondary, and this is the worst possible matchup for them with a prolific passing offense. We got exposed.”

“He started as a sophomore last year so this year he says in practice everything feels a little slower,” Lakers coach Guy Donnelly said. “He’s got great teammates, his line blocked for him today, gave him some time, he’s got great receivers and he spread the ball around. We converted four fourth downs today, that was huge.”

You did see vintage Campbell, which was led by back Brody Pinciaro (124 yards), who after the Lakers grabbed an early 7-0 lead on a Donnelly 6-yard TD flip to Aiden Kimball,ripped off a 53 yard TD run to help the Cougars get the lead 8-7.

And you saw what the Campbell offense is designed for, a 15-play, 51-yard scoring march that chewed up the first 9-plus minutes of the third quarter, ending with a Ben Raikey 3-yard TD run with 2:50 left that cut the halftime deficit to 25-22. But that was Campell’s last hurrah.

One of the problems were turnovers – two fumbles and an interception. That interception, thrown by Ty Breton at the Campbell 30, set up ILM’s clinching TD, a 7 -yard TD run by Curtis Page with 6:25 left. Donnelly’s PAT run off a fake hold made it 33-22.

“We said whoever’s going to win the turnovers is going to win the game,” Costello said.

There were bright spots.

“Offensively, we were able to move the ball at will,” Costello said. “But the key was the two turnovers in the first half and we didn’t convert on five fourth downs in the first half. That was the ball game.”

“They’re good, they’re bigger than us, they’ve got great backs,” Donnelly said. “It was just a matter of could we slow them down. We eventually did that in the fourth quarter. … They figured it out as the game went on.”

Campbell’s Brody Pinciaro (40) breaks up a pass to ILM’s Jackson Downs during Saturday’s Division III opener for both in Litchield. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

It was a see-saw early. After Campbell grabbed the lead, ILM answered with an 80-yard Donnelly TD strike to lead 13-8 before Campbell came back with a 10-play drive and a 16-13 lead on Joel Ducatelli’s 1-yard plunge early in the second quarter. But two unanswered scores, a Donnelly 18-yard run with 7:21 left and a Donnelly 20-yard TD pass to Jake Ambrose with 1:25 left before the half made it a two-score game. That was set up by the first Cougar fumble lost.

“It’s game one, it’s a long season,” Costello said. “What I like about this group is they’re not going to be satisfied with a win or upset by a loss after 18 hours. … Game one, we made a lot of mistakes that are all fixable.”