Romeo sacks its revenge on Troy
BY JAKE LOURIM
STUDENT CORRESPONDENT
ROMEO — In the preseason, Troy football coach Gary Griffith mentioned the old adage, “The game starts up front.”
His Colts lost the battle up front, and lost the game. Romeo was stout defensively, exacting revenge from Troy on Thursday with a 16-3 OAA-MAC crossover win. Troy won last year’s meeting, 31-7.
Offensive inconsistency plagued most of Troy’s possessions, leading to a low-scoring night.
The Colts’ first drive of the game went nine plays and 64 yards with seven penalties, four on Troy, but the drive stalled at the six. Sean Murphy booted a 23-yard field goal for the only points.
The next series, Troy ran four times for four yards starting at the Romeo 35 for a turnover on downs.
Romeo opened and closed the half with touchdowns, the first a seven-play, sixty-yard drive and the second a 13-play, 69-yard drive that ate up more than half of the second quarter.
For parts of those two scoring drives, Troy’s defense suffered from tackling miscues, notably on the Romeo tight end’s 19-yard score on the first drive.
Asked what bothered him about his team’s tackling, Griffith said simply, “We didn’t (tackle them). We didn’t wrap up.”
Linebacker Jarrett Bochniak added that the Colts suffered from nerves.
Excluding penalty yardage, Romeo averaged 6.9 yards per play on the two scoring drives.
The Colts’ first drive of the second half looked promising as well. After two third-down conversions and a 26-yard reverse run on second-and-17, Troy had the ball at the Romeo 43. But two incomplete passes and a three-yard run halted the drive there and forced a punt.
Another mistake followed shortly. The defense forced fourth-and-20 from the 41 on the ensuing possession, but a bouncing punt ricocheted off Davion Rice to bring the defense back out. Romeo kicked a field goal off that.
It was these kinds of miscues that irked Griffith most after the game.
“We didn’t play as well as I think we can,” he said.
In one series at quarterback, Jay Darish threw an interception off Tyler Horne’s hands. Two holding penalties thwarted the next drive, allowing Romeo to milk the clock.
Junior quarterback Justin Losey had 100 total yards, 44 passing on eight throws and 56 rushing on eight carries. He was under duress all night long, causing some incompletions. For three of his carries, Losey scrambled to escape defenders, and one was a sack.
With Chris Michael out with a quad contusion, Tyler Horne led a depleted receiving corps with three catches for 42 yards. Senior linebacker Matt Oppenlander had a team-high eight tackles.
Troy travels to Royal Oak next week. The Ravens were winless in the past three years but snapped a 28-game losing streak last week.
Asked how to motivate his team after a tough loss, Griffith said, “Show them the film. They’ll be scared to death. They’ll work hard.”
(Jake Lourim is a junior at Troy High school and part of the NOS Student Intern Program.He is also publisher of www.troycoltsportsupdate.com. He can be reached at j.lourim@comcast.net)
Category: High School, High School (M-Z), Prep Wraps, Student Columns, Troy
