Lake Orion grinds out win over Troy
BY JAKE LOURIM
STUDENT CORRESPONDENT
TROY — Lake Orion senior quarterback Sean Charette had to work a lot harder for this win over Troy.
The Colts outgained the Dragons in the second half Friday night, but couldn’t convert their chances in the red zone in a 17-7 OAA Red Division loss to the defending conference champion Dragons.
Lake Orion jumped all over Troy early last year with three touchdowns in the first quarter. But the Colts’ secondary tightened on Charette’s high-octane pass attack and forced the Dragons to grind it out in frigid temperatures for a win this season.
The defense was staunch for most of the night, the offense found room to run, but the Colts couldn’t finish their chances. Lake Orion still had the last laugh.
“Against a good football team, which Lake Orion is, you have to take advantage of those opportunities,” Troy coach Gary Griffith said. “We didn’t.”
Troy held its own offensively against the defending state champions, moving the ball down the field on its opening drive, but two penalties stalled the drive at the 12. Sean Murphy missed a 30-yard field goal attempt.
The Colts forced a three-and-out and a 7-yard punt to get the ball back in good field position, but Murphy missed a 38-yard try after a Troy three-and-out.
Still, the Dragons (5-1, 5-0) trudged nine plays on their opening drive in 3:32 for a touchdown, capped by Jacob Miller’s 9-yard run and Jeremy King’s extra point. The drive included only two passes, both complete for a total of 54 yards.
FOLOWING THE LEAD BLACK: LAke Orion's Jake Miller tries to move through the line looking for space during the Dragons' 17-7 OAA Red Division win Friday over Troy. Photo By Larry McKee, www.lmckeephotography.com
The latter field goal miss gave Lake Orion the momentum they needed to pad their lead.
Backed up at third-and-21 at the Troy 23 after a holding penalty, Charette tossed a 23-yard touchdown pass to the corner of the end zone to Chaz Miller.
“There’s a lot that we need to do better,” said Lake Orion coach Chris Bell. “We’re going to learn from this game, but we’re definitely glad to get out of here with the win. It definitely puts us in great position (in the league race). We’re still in the lead.”
With the exception of one second-half drive, Troy’s defense was solid the rest of the night.
The Colts held strong up front against the run, and stuck with the speedy Dragons’ wide outs on pass plays. Charette was 8-for-21 for 146 yards in the first half and 0-for-2 in the second half. On a cold night with a steady rain, Charette’s receivers had a difficult time holding on to the football.
The Troy secondary also had an effect on that, laying down the occasional bone-jarring hit to induce the drop.
“From a confidence perspective, our kids should feel like we can play with…anybody in our league,” Griffith said. “It’s just nice to see that tonight, there weren’t people running around all by themselves very often. There were people getting hit, and there were people dropping passes…I think we kind of got their attention.”
Troy finally punched one in right before the half on junior quarterback Justin Losey’s 1-yard touchdown run. The drive went 62 yards in six plays.
The Colts went in fired up at halftime, down only a touchdown. There was extra enthusiasm on the sideline for the upset, but they could never finish it. Rather than kick long field goals with a cold football, Troy went for two fourth downs and missed both scoring opportunities.
BREAKING ON THROUGH: Troy's Oliver Jiang finds a seam during Friday's game against Lake Orion. Photo By Larry McKee, www.lmckeephotography.com
When the Dragons finally sustained a drive, they milked five minutes off the clock and built their lead to 17-7 with a 20-yard field goal by King. Griffith said after the game that he was very happy with his team’s goal-line stand to force the field goal.
Troy’s final chance was 12 plays for 65 yards into the red zone, but Losey and senior Oliver Jiang fumbled an option pitch to give Lake Orion the ball back.
Now, the Colts are faced with the same situation as the last two years — 3-3 after six weeks, needing to win their last three for a guaranteed playoff berth. In 2009 Troy did it, but last year it lost to Pontiac and narrowly missed the playoffs.
“We need to treat every game like a Super Bowl, like a state championship game, like a
World Series,” Griffith said.
Jacob Miller finished with 126 rushing yards on 21 carries and Chaz Miller had 56 receiving yards for Lake Orion.
Matt Oppenlander provided 111 yards on 14 carries and Oliver added 93 yards on 19 attempts for Troy.
The Colts will again face Pontiac with three straight losses next week, followed by an OAA crossover game against Rochester Adams, Farmington or Oxford and the cross-town rival game against Troy Athens to end the regular season.
Lake Orion will visit Troy Athens next Friday and will host the OAA Red-White crossover game in Week 8 before visiting Clarkston in Week 9.
(Jake Lourim is a junior at Troy High School and part of the AdaVan Media Group’s Student Correspondence Program.to become a student writer, e-mail the sports department at dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com or dennis@northoaklandpsorts.com)
Category: High School, High School (M-Z), Lake Orion, Prep Wraps, Troy
